In practice, advisory works in a myriad of ways at different schools. At some, it meets once a week for 30 minutes; at others, it is the heart of the school culture and meets nearly every day. Many traditional public schools still do not have advisory, but independent schools, charter schools, and more outside-the-traditional-box public schools do. Since advisory already has dedicated time at many schools, it is just a matter of using that time well.
By teaching non-traditional academic skills or social-emotional skills, it could also better prepare students for life outside of school—whether that be college or a job.
At its best, advisory can help students discover a sense of purpose and craft more meaningful lives. Advisory is also one of the spaces with the most room for innovation in high school; unlike Algebra 1 or AP U.
History, it does not have a set curriculum that must be covered over the school year. But few tools or well-designed set curricula are available to advisory teachers—which is why I started Project Wayfinder with Kelly Schmutte at the Stanford d.
Below are several tips for implementing advisory that we have learned while studying advisory programs and designing the Project Wayfinder Navigation Toolkit , to help you create a valuable and fulfilling experience for students.
Advisory can be very similar to homeroom, in which case it may have little meaning for students. Or it can be the place that school culture is set by intentionally using the time to build the school culture you want. I have found that advisory is most powerful when it is a cornerstone of school culture. At Hillsdale, ninth graders are divided between three small schools, and students have the same adviser for two years, which helps them establish a meaningful relationship with an adult and with a core group of students from mixed racial and socio-economic backgrounds.
Teachers, students, and administrators are on the same page: Advisory is to be taken seriously. A decade after implementing its advisory program, Hillsdale scored in the 99th percentile on a school climate report card. And there are other, less quantifiable benefits Gilbert has observed, like more student relationships across racial and socioeconomic lines and greater communication and community amongst staff. Teachers are already overburdened and have too much to do. For them to be good advisers, they need the time to prep for advisory—and that means limiting their other duties.
This allows teachers to prep for advisory and signals that the school administration takes advisory seriously. Going one step further, some schools have had success advising their advisers—hiring someone whose sole responsibility is to design and implement the advisory program.
And this includes providing mentoring and advising to the advisory teachers themselves. For advisory to work well, students have to feel different there than they do in other classrooms.
The relationship with the adviser has to be different, they have to be willing to be more open, and they need to be engaged despite the lack of grades or black-and-white criteria for success. When I was an advisory teacher, the strength of my connection with students was the biggest indicator of my success. To be a good adviser, you have to make efforts to connect with students in ways that are not traditionally encouraged in academic classrooms; you have to be willing to be real and vulnerable with students, like when I shared my own stories of being hazed and bullied on sports teams through adolescence.
Otherwise, it will feel like just another classroom. And you have to create an advisory culture where students feel safe talking about hard things and sharing personal feelings. Without this sense of safety in the class and classroom, advisory may not reach its potential.
It is definitely worth taking the time at the beginning of the year to share your own journey in life and why you wanted to teach high school students.
Finally, take the time to set your advisory class culture and develop a mutual understanding of how group sharing is going to work—and make sure that students feel like they are co-creating the culture, not having it imposed on them. You might start each advisory session with a check-in, use a fun prompt to get things started, or show support for someone who is struggling.
Advisory is highly connected to lowering dropout rates, raising four-year graduation rates, and improving the trajectory for students to continue academic pursuits and post-secondary training after high school.
Differences between high school and college advisors Colleges and universities have long appreciated the potential in student-advisor relationships. Almost every college student is connected with an academic advisor familiar with their field of study who advises them on a variety of academic issues including course selection. Advisement at the high school and college level are built on the same foundationthe relationship between advisor and student.
At the collegiate level academic advisors help students make the most of their college experiences, including advice on how to choose courses to best serve their career interests. Some college students only know their advisor as the person who lifts an enrollment hold twice each year. Other students meet more often with their advisors who fill a crucial mentorship role; in these cases, collegiate advisors talk with students about a variety of academic issues.
High school advisory programs include regularly scheduled meetings so the advisor and students get to know each other well. The high school advisor can become the trusted adult students turn to for support beyond the classroom.
In essence, high school advisory lowers the non-academic barriers to learning, supports students through challenges, and directs students to the resources and relationships they need to succeed.
Advisory distinctly layers supports for students. The intrinsic motivation and social skills built in high school Advisory programs engage students and help to form a foundation of social, emotional, and study skills needed for students to succeed in college. Advisors can make a meaningful difference too. By an advisor getting to know a student and her family well sometimes over the course of four years , the advisor can help guide the student through the college application process.
For example, a 12th grade advisory group can provide the setting needed for students to learn about post-secondary options, discuss the application process, edit application essays, and receive regular reminders as they meet college application deadlines.
Support in navigating the college application process is particularly important for students who are the first in their family to attend college. In schools where guidance counselors are overburdened and personalized attention is not always the norm, advisors play a critical role in answering questions, writing recommendation letters, and ensuring that students are on track to graduate.
Advisory can take many forms. At the Colorado Springs Early College High School, students are being grouped by career cluster in accordance with their professional interests as determined by a career inventory. College professors team up with high school advisors to add a depth of career experience neither could provide alone.
In this model, college professors play a critical role in making the curriculum relevant as they engage students in the career exploration process. The MET Schools, a network of unique charter schools, take advisory to a whole new level. In fact, these schools have nothing but advisory!
Students meet in a same group all day, all year long, as the advisor guides them through a self-paced and self-directed course of academic study.
To learn more about their model, go to: www. The Posse Foundation is another example of deliberate high school to college transition support. Posse sends cohorts of 10 students from the same city to a small, liberal arts college together on full four-year scholarships granted by the receiving institution.
Prior to matriculation, the cohort meets weekly, from January to August, to ensure the students are academically and socially prepared for the challenges of college. By the time they Posse students arrive on campus, they are ready to transition successfully and often become positive voices for campus change. Leveraging high school advisory in higher education Some lessons can be translated from successful high school advisory programs to the collegiate level.
Recommendations for college advising programs include:. Hodges is right - we can increase post-secondary student success rates through intentional collaboration to create a seamless path for students as they move from one level to the next.
Blum, R. Journal of School Health, 74 4. Croninger, R. Teachers College Record, 4 , DiMartino, J. Hodges, A. Academic Advising Today, 33 4. Malone, H. Build a bridge from high school to college: Transition programs are essential for many disadvantaged students. Phi Kappa Phi Forum. Poliner, R. The Advisory Guide.
Rutter, M. Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms. Rolf, A. Masten, D.
0コメント