Revisiting School Accountability: The Shift to a L
earning-Centered RegimeJoin us for the final session of Y-Lab’s 2 025 Youth Advocacy Writing Group Wor king Paper Lunch Series.
*Be sure to RSVP for lunch on April 23.
Revisiting School Accountability: The Shift to a L
earning-Centered RegimeAnu Joy\, Harvard Law School J.D. Candidate< /p>
Paper Topic: The modern school accountability system is driven by performance based accountability\, measuring a school’s effec tiveness by the assessment performance of students. Devoid from this system is the acknowledgment of students as active participants in their own educ ation and a preference for higher test scores over true learning. In order for students to receive a high quality education\, school accountability sy stems must shift to be more learning-centered\, and in tandem\, student-cen tered.
Biography: Anu is a 3L at Harvard Law School and a Youth Advocacy and Policy Lab Fellow. While at HLS\, Anu has been on the editorial board of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Journal\, on t he YLab Fellows Leadership team\, and involved in the Women’s Law Associati on. She has been deeply engaged in education law\, participating in many of YLab’s clinics to advocate for the educational rights of youth. After grad uation\, Anu will be clerking with the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Civil Rights Liability and the EdTech RevolutionPaper Topic: Software to grade papers\, cameras that take attendan ce: increasingly\, education technology (EdTech) products are becoming a do minant force in American schools. But when those tools lead to discriminato ry outcomes\, who can be held responsible under federal civil rights laws? This paper argues that EdTech companies should generally qualify as “recipi ents” of federal funding via direct\, indirect\, and controlling authority theories of liability\, meaning EdTech companies can\, and should\, be dire ctly held accountable for putting discriminatory products in classrooms.
Biography: Kirsten “Shaw” Mettler (she/her) is a Class of 2026 J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School. During law school\, she has interned with the U.S. Department of Education\, Office for Civil Rights an d the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. She is the Developme nts in the Law Chair for Harvard Law Review and Co-Editor in Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender. Prior to law school\, Sha w graduated with honors from Stanford University\, majoring in Political Sc ience and minoring in Feminist\, Gender\, and Sexuality studies. Her underg raduate thesis focused on gender-based violence in the digital age through a lens of both policy and speculative fiction\, winning the Monica Moore Pr ize. She has also worked at the intersection of technology\, discrimination \, and child advocacy through experiences with Access Now and ChildFund Int ernational.
Drill Music and Juvenile Probat
ion: Legal Challenges to Social Media Restrictions in the Juvenile Legal Sy
stemLiz Coughlin\, Harvard Law School J.D. Candidate
Paper Topic: This paper scrutinizes the use of social media restri ctions—particularly those targeting drill music—as probation conditions in the juvenile legal system and their disproportionate impact on Black and Br own youth. It also presents potential constitutional and legal challenges f or defense attorneys.
Biography: Liz is a third-year law student from Norwood\, Massachusetts. They graduated from Boston Colle ge in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. Before attending law school\, Liz served for two years in Ameri Corps as a full-time tutor at a public high school in Boston. At Harvard La w School\, Liz has been active in Lambda\, the LGBTQ+ affinity group\, and has held positions as a Student Writing Editor and Executive Technical Edit or for the Civil Rights Civil Liberties Law Review. Additionally\, they are a student attorney in two practice organizations: the Prison Legal Assista nce Project\, where they also serve as Commutation Director\, and Harvard D efenders. As a 3L\, Liz has dedicated both semesters to working as a studen t attorney in the Criminal Justice Institute and as a Youth Advocacy & Poli cy Fellow. After spending both summers at public defense organizations\, Li z is excited to begin their career as a public defender with the Brooklyn D efenders in New York City after graduation.
Harvard Law School J.D. Candidate
More informatio n coming soon.