Title
Mentorship: The effects of community members’ guidance on middle school at-risk students
Needs Assessment
When our school received our AYP report card and Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) scores from the previous year, our administrators and I analyzed the data to determine the needs of our students. My principal asked for the group to devise a plan to help our economically disadvantaged at-risk students, who overlapped in many categories of the AYP report. The students classified as economically disadvantaged at-risk were selected to participate in the mentorship program due to low Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills scores, Cognitive Ability Test scores, Measures of Academic Progress test scores, classroom grades, and number of behavior referrals received.
Objectives and Vision of the action research project
I proposed a plan to create a mentorship program to increase academic achievement in partnering with community volunteers. In the plan, the community members provide guidance to our students by exploring occupational interests, continuing educational options, and life skills. My principal approved the program and provided the appropriate contacts to begin the process of the mentorship program. The objectives for the action research mentorship program is 80% of our economically disadvantaged students, who are failing a core class, are to be matched with a mentor by November of 2011, the economically disadvantaged students to have fewer behavioral referrals written due to poor behavior between November 2011 and May 2012, and economically disadvantaged students in grades 6 through 8 to meet a 90% passing rate on all 2012 MAP tests.
Review of the Literature and Action Research Strategy
In “How to build a successful mentoring program using the elements for effective practice,” the literature explains each program needs to consist of data driven interviews, surveys, and records to evaluate the types of activities, the quality of the activities, the length of the mentor relationship, frequency and duration of the meetings, and the perception of the relationship with the student and mentor. Our middle school mentorship program will also gather outcome data from teachers, school records, behavior referrals, classroom grades and MAP scores to determine if the student is improving their academics, behavior, and psychological function. To gather additional data, we will ask the parents of the programs students to provide feedback on the student’s behavior at home, their study habits, and any changes they have seen in their child since the program began.
When developing the curriculum for the mentorship program for economically disadvantaged students, I used Ruby Payne’s “A framework for Understanding Poverty” to provide the appropriate techniques to the mentors in the program. In Payne’s “A framework for Understanding Poverty”, I learned about generational poverty, characteristics of cultural poverty, and how to become a support system, while increasing achievement, for those in poverty.
MENTOR. (2005). How to build a successful mentoring program using the elements for effective practice. Retrieved from http://www.mentoring.org/program_resources/elements_and_toolkits?eeptoolkit
Payne, R. K. (2001). A framework for understanding poverty. Highlands, TX: aha! Process, Inc.
Articulate the Vision
After receiving approval from my principal, I met with the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) president and I described my goals and vision of the mentorship program. I asked the PTA president if the mentorship program could partner with the PTA to provide communication to the community. The PTA president agreed to partner with the middle school and she began to communicate the opportunity to serve as a volunteer of the mentorship program to parents, city government officials, local businesses, and churches.
I provided an informational meeting to the community members who were interested in the mentorship opportunity. At the informational meeting, I communicated expectations, procedures, district policies, goals, and the vision of the program. After I provided the information of the program, I answer any and all questions from the volunteers. At the volunteer meeting, I had each volunteer sign a document stating they would commit one day a week for an entire school year, abide by district policies and state laws, and they have completed a district background check.
Once I received all signed volunteer commitment contracts and background checks, I sent letters home to the parents of the targeted students. In the letter, the parents are given the information about the curriculum, the time of the meetings, the duration of the program, the screening of the volunteers, the staff members involved, and the goals for each participant. The letter is a release form for the parent to sign, indicating they are giving parent consent for their child to participate in the mentorship program.
Manage the organization
The mentors meet with their designated student once a week during the student’s lunch, which lasts for thirty minutes. During the lunch period, the mentor follows the provided curriculum, which covers a variety of academic subject matter. The curriculum topics include occupational interests, continuing education, college funding, goal setting, organization, and other life skills. I have created the curriculum, using various sources, and my assistant principal reviews and revises the curriculum each week.
When the mentors arrive at the school, the campus secretary has the volunteer sign in at the front office and the mentor receives a sticker, stating they are a student mentor, and the curriculum material for the particular day. The students have passes, which allow the student to leave a few minutes early to get their lunch from the cafeteria, to allow the students to get to the Distance learning room (DLR) as quickly as possible. The mentors and students meet in the DLR, which is supplied with tables, chairs, computers, writing utensils, and paper, to have a quiet working space without interruptions. In the DLR, a rotation occurs with teachers, counselors, or administrators at each lunch to serve as a resource and a monitor for safety for the students and mentors. During the time with the student, the mentor follows the topics of the curriculum and the mentor relates the material with the student’s life.
Manage Operations
My main strategy used in leading the project was to get a one on one meeting with every person involved to share my vision of providing our students with an additional recourse beyond academic tutoring. I wanted to provide a person who was consistent in the child’s life who cared about their future. I used the needs assessment during my meeting with my campus administration to determine the needs of our campus and in developing the curriculum for the mentors. I used data to determine what groups of students were in need of additional support and the students we were targeting to invite to the program. I tried to use each the strength of each person involved to help in the process. I used the PTA president for communication, the assistant principal for guidance and supervision, the councilor for a data resource and myself for organization. As a group, we discuss and decide on various decisions and problems. If the material being discussed is sensitive to public ears, I don’t involve the PTA president. The PTA president and myself provide all information communicated to the staff, volunteers, or parents for the mentorship program. The PTA president responds to any general information and I am responsible for any specific or sensitive information regarding the program.
Respond to Community Interest and Needs
The mentorship program was created for the economically disadvantaged at-risk students who needed additional support to increase student academic achievement. Several of our economically disadvantaged at-risk students are in special education. For those students with special needs, we have a special education teacher or paraprofessional available as a resource for the mentor. All the students in the program are assimilated to regular education core classes. We have a very diverse group of students and I have tried to match the mentor’s sex and ethnicity of that of the student.
Our school has never asked for help from the community beyond the PTA. The mentorship program is the first partnership with the community to provide additional support to our students. When advertising the chance for the community to participate in a mid day program, we received 34 volunteers, who committed participating one day a week for one year.
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