How to Run a Student Opinion Column in the School Newsletter

A student opinion column that is genuinely written by students, addresses topics students care about, and is not sanitized into adult-approved positions is one of the most powerful additions a school can make to its newsletter. It builds argument writing skills, gives students real public voice, and often produces the newsletter content that families find most interesting.

Choose Topics Students Actually Have Opinions About

Opinion columns about abstract topics or topics students have been assigned to care about produce generic content. Opinion columns about things students are already debating produce genuine argument.

The best student opinion column topics come from conversations already happening in the school: the phone ban, the late-start schedule, the new cafeteria menu, the dress code change, the cancellation of an extracurricular. Give students a structure and a platform for the argument they are already having informally.

Teach the Difference Between Position and Argument

A student who writes "I think the school's phone ban is unfair because phones are useful" has expressed a position. A student who writes "The school's phone ban fails to distinguish between disruptive personal use and legitimate academic use, and a more nuanced policy would serve both learning and student needs more effectively, as demonstrated by [evidence]" has made an argument.

Teaching students to acknowledge and address the strongest counterargument to their position is the single skill that separates a credible opinion column from a complaint.

Maintain Factual Standards

An opinion column that contains factually incorrect statements about school policy, statistics, or events undermines the credibility of both the student and the newsletter. The advisor's editorial role includes fact-checking claims and requiring sources for statistics. An opinion column that is factually accurate is publishable even when its argument is controversial. One that is factually inaccurate is not.

Give Students a Real Audience

Student opinion columns that appear in newsletters distributed to every school family are genuinely public. That audience is part of what makes the writing matter. A student who knows their column will be read by 600 families takes the work more seriously than a student who knows the column will only be seen by their teacher.

Rotate Fairly and Broadly

Rotate the opinion column opportunity across a wide range of students, not only those who are already strong writers. Develop each contributor through a revision cycle that builds their skills before publication. A student who receives specific, substantive editorial feedback on a first draft and produces a stronger second draft has developed the skill that the whole program is designed to build.