Global reports suggest a continuous decline in students’ academic performance and assessment outcomes, with disadvantaged students being most affected. One starting point for action plans and improvement efforts to address this ethical problem is providing adequate opportunities and support for ‘student voice’ so that schools/educational institutions could be more responsive to their needs and improve assessment outcomes. ‘Student voice’ is a growing movement that seeks to offer educational institutions productive ways to solicit and enact student input on key matters such as assessment and school environment to ensure all learners receive the support they need and foster social-educational growth. But, navigating student voice can also be practically and ethically challenging in an era of misinformation and disinformation, potentially (and paradoxically) exacerbating systemic inequities in education.

Based in both Monash University (Australia) and The Pennsylvania State University (USA), the Australasia-U.S. Educational Equity Hub project (AUSEEH) is collaborating with scholars, educators, students, policymakers, education systems, and Non-Governmental Organizations to co-design ethical student voice tools and conduct research that will help partners improve outcomes and equity for students across the regions. AUSEEH’s projects intentionally cross both geographic and system boundaries, with the intent of delivering
ethically nuanced, evidence-based, student voice-driven, practical and actionable solutions to problems that may be adversely affecting students and lead to a reduction in the opportunities available to them throughout their lives. For instance, we are creating a global
network of scholars that study the use of student voice-based assessment data (e.g., student surveys) to improve teaching and access to higher education. Scholars in the network will be able to exchange methods, insights, and ethical-educational strategies
across regions to address this issue of systemic inequities in education.

Researchers at the AUSEEH have expertise in a broad range of topics (e.g., student/youth voice, educational ethics, assessment, policy, social justice, civic education, EAL teaching and learning, digital technologies and refugee education) and methods (e.g., participatory action research, public opinion polling, causal and mixed method evaluations). From its Monash University base, the Hub project is also able to bring in expertise from across the university (e.g., the Monash Data Science and AI Platform and its branch, the Monash Statistical Consulting Service) and outside Monash University, ensuring we assess and utilise the appropriate knowledge and methods to effectively address globally and ethically challenging issues of educational inequity.