Middle School Advisories: Retrospect and Prospect

Abstract

This article presents a critical analysis of middle school advisor-advisee programs. The history of and rationale for these programs are reviewed, and a typology is offered for distinguishing different advisory programs. A conceptual framework is provided for identifying potential barriers to advisories at the inception as well as the implementation and maintenance phases, and suggestions for addressing these barriers are discussed. Existing research on advisory programs is reviewed and evaluated, and guidelines for improving future research are presented. Finally, alternative educational practices for achieving the goals of advisory programs are considered.

The Effects of Privileging Moral or Performance Character Development in Urban Adolescents

“…Toward this end, it seems that many school leaders would benefit from a closer examination of the particular learning objectives and lessons through which faculty at Collegiate Bound and Civitas Prep utilized their weekly advisory programming to promote students' performance character development and the character strengths of perseverance and community connectedness in particular. Advisory has typically been utilized to offer students' academic support via tutoring or social-emotional support by fostering bonds among a small group of students and faculty members (Galassi et al, 1997). The advisory programming at Collegiate Bound and Civitas Prep included these aims as well; however, the use of advisory at both schools to engage students in reading, discussion, and self-reflection upon the particular character strengths that promote achievement warrants greater attention from both researchers and school leaders.…”

“…Advisory groups are structures in which an adult and a small group of students meet regularly to provide these students with both academic and social-emotional support (Galassi, Gulledge, & Cox, 1997). Scholars have found advisory programs to be associated with an increased sense of trust and belonging on the part of students (Ziegler & Mulhall, 1994), increased levels of positive peer support (Ayres, 1994), and improved relationships between students and teachers (Espe, 1993;Totten & Nielson, 1994).…”

Teacher Role Breadth and its Relationship to Student-Reported Teacher Support

“…Teachers who serve as student advisors-providing academic and social-emotional support to students in a formally assigned mentoring relationship that often spans multiple school years-stand as a notable exception to this tendency (Burns, Jenkins & Kane, 2011;Lieber & Poliner, 2004). Though limited, research on advisory programs (Anfara, 2006;Galassi, Gulledge & Cox, 1997;Shulkind & Foote, 2009) suggests that secondary school students do benefit from regular personal contact with an assigned advisor, where the advisor tends to develop an extended relationship with student advisees, oversees students' academic progress, and intervenes when problems arise. Still, even within the context of formal advisory programs, teachers enact the advisor role in different ways, with foci as diverse as college readiness, team building, and individual mentoring (Phillippo, 2010).…”