College Counseling and SAT/ACT Prep: Exploring Synergies
Peer Group Connection: Mentoring For Safe, Supportive, Engaging, and Inspiring Environments
1. Princeton Center for Leadership Training
Dr. Margo Ross, Senior Director
April 11, 2013
2. Partner with schools to help create safer and more
supportive, engaging, inspiring environments
Has served hundreds of schools since 1988 and our work
touches tens of thousands of students, educators, and
parents annually
Highly committed to implementing effective programs in
partnership with communities that have large numbers of
economically disadvantaged youth
3. District/School Government Leaders
Administrators Community-
Teachers Based/Nonprofit Leaders
Student Support Services Business Leaders
Professionals Funders
Elementary Educators Parents
Middle Grades Educators Students
High School Educators Who did we miss?
4. As a result of participating in this workshop, learners will be able
to:
• articulate why feeling connected to school leads to fewer
dropouts, higher grades, and reduced bullying
• appreciate the need to focus on the middle to high school
transition in efforts to improve students’ sense of school
connectedness
• understand the evidence supporting a peer group mentoring
model that enhances school connectedness for students and
eases the transition into high school for 9th graders
5. • There is a profound weakness in the support
provided to students during the transition
into high school.
• By the time they are in high school, as many
as 40 to 60 percent of all students—urban,
suburban and rural—are ―chronically
disengaged‖ from school.
• Such disengagement has dire consequences
– research consistently demonstrates that
students are most vulnerable for dropping
out of school during and immediately
following their first year of high school.
Blum, 2005; Cohen & Smerdon, 2009
6. From your experiences and observations,
what are the most significant challenges
facing students as they transition from
middle school to high school?
7. Programs that support students
throughout the transition from
middle to high school and extending
throughout the freshman and
sophomore years have the greatest
impact on keeping students engaged
and in school.
8. Have adequate support of Are delivered over multiple
school leadership structured sessions over
multiple years
Develop individual social skills
Provide adequate training and
Are theory driven support to program facilitators
Involve interactive teaching Are culturally and
approaches (e.g. small group developmentally appropriate for
activities and role plays) the students they serve
Use properly selected and Integrate into the regular school
trained peer leaders to facilitate day
delivery of the program
Reach all students transitioning
Integrate other segments of the
community (e.g. family Have adequate resources
members)
9. By leveraging the power of school-based, group mentoring by
older peers and focusing intensively on the transition from
middle to high school…
We can transform this period of heightened vulnerability into one
of significant opportunity to prevent the potentially devastating
personal and societal consequences of high school
disengagement.
10. School connectedness
- the belief by students that people in
the school care about their learning
and about them as individuals –
is an powerful protective factor in the
lives of young people and an important
prerequisite to reduced bullying, greater
academic achievement, lower dropout
rates, improved grades, fewer discipline
referrals, and fewer high-risk behaviors.
Blum & Libbey, 2004; http://www.casel.org/basics/climate.php
11. Once upon a time, we were where our students
are. Our experiences may have looked
different from theirs, or our experiences may
have looked similar. Almost across the board,
though, adolescence wasn’t—and isn’t—easy.
To help establish context for considering
programming that supports school
connectedness and ensures that students make
an effective transition into high school, let’s
begin with a quick visit back to that time and
place when we, too, were teenagers…
12. Working in groups of three, participants introduce themselves to
one another and take turns sharing responses to any one of the
following questions:
• What is one memory you have about a time in high school when
you felt strongly connected to other students?
• What is one memory you have about a time in high school when
you felt strongly disconnected from other students?
• Think back to one adult in your middle school or high school
who threw you a lifeline – this adult knew you and cared about
you, and this person’s caring made a positive difference in your
life.
13. • What patterns did we see emerge in
our memories of school connectedness
and disconnectedness?
• What might make it even harder for
today’s high school students to
experience a sense of school
connectedness?
14. Peer-to-peer group mentoring is a
straightforward, cost-effective, and evidence-
based model for:
• Enhancing school connectedness
• Easing the transition into high school
for 9th graders
16. Let’s watch a brief video segment that highlights
the PGC program in Union City, New Jersey, where
students are currently immersed in mentoring
roles.
• What did you see or hear that resonated with
you most deeply?
• What school-based challenges do you think
would be addressed by a group mentoring
program that sets older students in motion with
younger students?
16 16
17. % of Ninth Grade Students who
Graduated from High School
90% 90%
81%
80% 77% 80%
67% 70%
70%
63%
60% 60%
50%
50%
Program Group Control Group
Program Group Control Group
All Students Male Students
17
18. • Higher grades
• Better attendance
• Fewer discipline referrals
• Fewer instances of fighting and suspension
• Improved communication with peers and
others
19. 1. Collaboration with School Leadership: PCLT staff collaborates with
school leadership to assemble and train a school-based Stakeholder
Team.
2. Faculty Advisors: PCLT staff collaborates with the school-based
Stakeholder Team to identify, select, train, and support Faculty Advisors.
3. Peer Leaders: Faculty Advisors select and train Peer Leaders through an
out-of-school retreat and a daily, credit-bearing leadership class.
4. Weekly Outreach Sessions: Peer Leaders mentor and support younger
peers in curriculum-driven weekly sessions, carefully planned special
events, meaningful service learning projects and informally throughout
the school day and year.
5. Family Nights: Parents/caregivers participate in special family events.
6. 10th Grade Booster Sessions: Younger peers receive additional support
for a second year.
19
20. The PGC curriculum uses engaging, hands-on activities to
address issues that have been shown to help reduce risk
behaviors and produce positive student outcomes, including
high school completion. Curriculum topics include:
Sense of School Belonging Goal Setting
Competence in Coping Skills
Interpersonal Relationships Decision Making
Conflict Resolution, Anger
Peer Acceptance & Resisting
Management, & Violence
Peer Pressure
Prevention
Anger Management
Bullying & Bystander
Behavior Stress Management
Achievement Orientation & Service Learning
Motivation
20
21.
22. • What is something you’ve heard or
thought about today that will stay with
you?
• What’s one next step you would like to
take back to your own school?
• For additional information about PCLT,
please contact Margo at
mross@princetonleadership.org
Hinweis der Redaktion
Research consistently demonstrates that students are most vulnerable for dropping out of school during and immediately following their first year of high school. Programs that support students throughout the transition and extending throughout the school year have the greatest impact on keeping students engaged and in school.
Research consistently demonstrates that students are most vulnerable for dropping out of school during and immediately following their first year of high school. Programs that support students throughout the transition and extending throughout the school year have the greatest impact on keeping students engaged and in school.
Peer-to-peer group mentoring has provided hundreds of high schools across the country with a straightforward, cost-effective, and evidence-based model for enhancing school connectedness and easing the transition into high school for 9th graders
PCLT is inspired by this incredible and historic opportunity. We will build on more than two decades of partnership with the Newark Public Schools and lessons learned from working with hundreds of schools and thousands of students, teachers, and parents. We are confident that we can be a catalyst for engaging the entire Newark community in an ongoing, coordinated focus on and commitment to providing for all students a safe and supportive environment; an environment that inspires students to come to school ready to learn, achieve, and ultimately graduate ready for the rigors of college and high quality careers; an environment that is a prerequisite for learning.