Download - Peer Group Connection: Mentoring For Safe, Supportive, Engaging, and Inspiring Environments
Peer Group Connection: Mentoring for Safe,
Supportive, Engaging, and Inspiring Environments
Princeton Center for Leadership Training
Dr. Margo Ross, Senior Director
April 11, 2013
Who are we?Princeton Center for Leadership
Training (PCLT)
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
Who are you?
District/School Administrators
Teachers Student Support
Services Professionals Elementary Educators Middle Grades
Educators High School Educators
Government Leaders Community-Based/
Nonprofit Leaders Business Leaders Funders Parents Students Who did we miss?
Learning Objectives
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
Challenge• 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
Transition & Challenges
From your experiences and observations,
what are the most significant challenges facing students as they
transition from middle school to high school?
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.
Effective Transition Programs
Have adequate support of school leadership
Develop individual social skills
Are theory driven
Involve interactive teaching approaches (e.g. small group activities and role plays)
Use properly selected and trained peer leaders to facilitate delivery of the program
Integrate other segments of the community (e.g. family members)
Are delivered over multiple structured sessions over multiple years
Provide adequate training and support to program facilitators
Are culturally and developmentally appropriate for the students they serve
Integrate into the regular school day
Reach all students transitioning
Have adequate resources
Effective Transition Programs (continued)
Opportunity
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.
By leveraging the power of school-based, group mentoring by older peers and focusing intensively on the transition from
middle to high school…
Getting Grounded
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
My Teenage SelfOnce 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…
DirectionsWorking 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.
Reflections
• 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?
Strategy
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
Peer Group Connection (PGC) Structure
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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?
PGC in Action
1616
Results: Graduation Rates
All Students Male Students
81%
63%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Program Group Control Group
77%
67%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Program Group Control Group
% of Ninth Grade Students who Graduated from High
School
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• Higher grades
• Better attendance
• Fewer discipline referrals
• Fewer instances of fighting and suspension
• Improved communication with peers and others
Other Results
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.
PGC Model: Overview of Six Key Steps
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Sense of School Belonging
Competence in Interpersonal Relationships
Conflict Resolution, Anger Management, & Violence Prevention
Bullying & Bystander Behavior
Achievement Orientation & Motivation
PGC CurriculumThe 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:
Goal Setting
Coping Skills
Decision Making
Peer Acceptance & Resisting Peer Pressure
Anger Management
Stress Management
Service Learning
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Questions, Thoughts and Discussion
Final Reflections• 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 [email protected]