Peer Group Connection: Evidence-Based Group Mentoring that

Helps Transform Schools into Safer and More Supportive, Engaging, and

Inspiring EnvironmentsPrinceton Center for Leadership Training

Dr. Margo Ross, Senior Director of DevelopmentDr. Sherry Barr, Vice President

January 25, 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 strategies and actions of an evidence-based 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

Opportunity

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

A peer-to-peer group mentoring model, known as Peer Group Connection (PGC) that 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.

Peer Group Connection (PGC) Structure

1212

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

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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. PCLT staff collaborates with school leadership to assemble and train a school-based Stakeholder Team.

2. PCLT staff collaborates with the school-based Stakeholder Team to identify, select, train, and support Faculty Advisors.

3. Faculty Advisors select and train Peer Leaders through an out-of-school retreat and a daily, credit-bearing leadership class.

4. 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. Parents/caregivers participate in special family events.

6. Younger peers receive additional support for a second year.

PGC Model: Overview of Six Key Steps

1616

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

Use the Self-Assessment Rubric in your Resource Guide to follow along as we briefly review each of the 7 best practices

For each best practice, consider – is my school:• GREEN – Fully up and running• YELLOW – En route to this best practice• RED – We have yet to begin

On a signal from your facilitator, please weigh in by holding up the appropriate colored paper from the set you’ve been given

7 Best Practices for Launching a Successful Group Mentoring

Initiative

Create a Stakeholders Team comprised of key

school and community

representatives

Best Practice #1

Prepare students with care

Best Practice #2

Prepare faculty with care

Best Practice #3

Involve parents and other adult caretakers

Best Practice #4

Utilize an interactive, engaging

curriculum

Best Practice #5

Handle logistics and scheduling well in advance

Best Practice #6

Evaluate your program

Best Practice #7

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 mross@princetonleadership.org