School Advisory Programs: Theories, Models, and Best Practices

Overview of School Advisory Programs

School advisory programs serve various purposes, including providing the environment and time to develop meaningful teacher-student relationships, promoting students' emotional, moral, and social development, and offering academic and personal guidance. The programs need to be organized effectively, encompass relevant content, and have a suitable leader. Periodic program assessment is also important. This paper compares and contrasts three theoretical approaches in the area of advisory program implementation, then focuses on one approach — promoting care through advisory programs — for deeper discussion. It also addresses controversies related to such programs and recommends solutions to key challenges.

One of the chief purposes of school advisory initiatives is providing the environment and time to cultivate significant teacher-student (advisor-student) relationships. The school community's vision — regarding what it aspires to achieve through the program — constitutes a key philosophical response to expressed needs. Goal identification and communication serve program planners in both a technical and philosophical sense. Verbalized focus goals offer broad referents for program planning as well as its further stages. Advisory groups endeavor to guide students academically and personally, as well as promote their moral, social, and emotional development (Osofsky et al., 2003).

Regardless of the program's design and frequency, what occurs within the advisory group should be:

1. Planned to reflect students' developmental needs.

2. Scheduled so that teachers and students know what to anticipate and when.

3. Practicable and appropriate, in keeping with the school's distinctive philosophy.

Theoretical Approaches to Advisory Program Implementation

4. Endorsed by faculty and administrative staff, so that the program becomes a true team endeavor among school staff rather than the pet project of a few individuals (Osofsky et al., 2003).

Almost all schools adopt a thematic approach when organizing advisory topics. These topics may be categorized as: personal, which includes self-esteem, wellness, violence prevention, friendship, and disabilities and abilities; career, which covers service learning, citizenship, volunteering, career planning, and community and future planning; and educational, which encompasses knowing one's school, teamwork, goal-setting, test-taking competencies, and learning styles. Typical activity types that promote relationship-building within advisory programs include addressing school concerns, instructional concerns, career education, and students' personal concerns (Osofsky et al., 2003).

Regular, formal program assessment is valuable. Questionnaires designed to gather information from teachers, students, parents, and other stakeholders regarding outcomes and expectations can reveal the extent of program effectiveness. Such surveys must be grounded in program objectives and goals, worded in terms of students' behavioral outcomes. Other school climate measures — such as vandalism rates, teacher and student attendance, transfer rates, truancy, the severity and frequency of discipline issues, evidence of learning, attendance at school-sponsored activities, and how the community, students, and parents view the school — help indicate whether students feel valued by the school (Osofsky et al., 2003).

According to respondents of a study on advisory programs, the driver for advisory programs was a mix of groups or individuals in various configurations. Nevertheless, all schools had somebody or some group entrusted with responsibility for program implementation and supervision. These individuals or groups most frequently comprised an advisory/planning committee, counselor(s), the principal, and advisory teachers. Numerous advisory program advocates have emphasized the significance of staff development and comprehensive planning both before and during advisory program implementation (Osofsky et al., 2003).

Research in this area has identified five key advisory program goals, with multiple goals identified by several studies, including: development of strong interpersonal relationships between school faculty and students; educational support for students; curriculum enrichment; and development of school culture. Several popular models of school reform clearly encourage — or actually integrate — advisory systems into high school models. For example, in a number of schools adopting the common "Coalition of Essential Schools" principle — a nationwide school reform movement — advisory is regarded as the primary mechanism for ensuring that individual students are well-acquainted with one or more adult faculty members. New York's high school reform efforts (e.g., "New Visions for New Schools"-sponsored initiatives) have also incorporated advisory into their models for thriving small schools. According to the Institute for Student Achievement (ISA), advisory — together with student problems-focused team meetings and similar measures — represents a promising means of implementing distributed counseling (Tocci et al., 2005).

Middle school advisory programs differ considerably from traditional school advisory methods. Historically, the concept of school advising has been most commonly adopted at the high school level, using certified counselors rather than certified teachers. Traditional counselors' role involves meeting individually with students and assisting them with class scheduling, high school-to-college-to-job transitions, and providing guidance and intervention. Counselors typically carry caseloads of over a hundred students, assigned alphabetically or randomly. High school students ordinarily meet with their counselor once per semester, unless an additional need arises. Advisory programs, by contrast, aim to directly address transescent students' affective needs. Activities can range from informal interactions to application of systematically developed units whose organizing centers are drawn from transescents' common needs, problems, concerns, or interests — such as getting along with fellow students, developing a positive self-concept, and navigating life at school. In an ideal advisory program, a transescent will become closely acquainted with one adult faculty member, who will help him or her understand how to be a well-rounded individual and find a sense of security at school (Stawick, 2011).

All schools have their own unique arrangements and plans; hence, their expectations need to be clearly defined. An advisor must know: how frequently he or she is required to meet with each student; how students are to be gathered; how to receive information on each student; how frequently they ought to meet with or call students' parents; and what their role is in student-related matters such as discipline and scheduling.

Expectations must be practical and comprehensively understood by advisors. Some advisors choose to work well beyond these basic expectations; however, no advisor should be pressured into doing more than is expected. It is important that advisory program plans result from thoughtful discussion among staff. A teacher-dominated committee will likely formulate the final plan, which should gain the approval of the administrative team as well as a majority of staff members. This plan will probably reflect teachers' needs, contracts, and culture within a given school district or school. Advisory systems generally fit within teacher contract parameters. Nevertheless, as the late Albert Shanker, a former union leader, predicted, many teacher groups devise special arrangements when they perceive value for pupils and when such arrangements do not seriously violate teacher contracts. Shanker believed that teachers welcome responsible change and will work collaboratively with administrators and school boards to create innovative circumstances for initiatives that matter to them.

Promoting Care Through Advisory Programs

A student advisory form provides school staff with information useful in assisting students. These forms need to be clearly explained so that advisors can answer the following questions: For what purpose has the form been distributed? How do staff members complete it? What are advisors required to do with completed forms? Most advisory forms are easy to understand and complete. The greater challenge lies in what advisors and recipients are required to do with the written responses (Goldberg, 1998).

This New Jersey school combines a global baccalaureate curriculum highlighting global tolerance and responsibility with a student advisory program that offers avenues for service and leadership to all students, teaching its students to care. Students demonstrate this care through an assortment of service education ventures. The school's aim is to be a caring, spirited family for every student. Every child begins the school day with an advisory session, in which students get acquainted with one another while discussing issues and planning service projects. To create a family atmosphere on campus, this school of more than 600 pupils has broken down grade levels into individual "Learning Communities" — educator teams responsible for particular groups of students, who collaborate with those students to fulfill their unique needs. The school's culture emphasizes acceptance and caring, both on campus and in the wider world (Framework for School Success, 2015).

This school intentionally restructured its school day to accommodate "Character Connection" sessions, in which students meet daily for 20 minutes and follow class-meeting protocols. During these advisory sessions, mixed-grade student groups help each other grasp, internalize, and practice core values. Group activities include peer tutoring, writing character objectives, discussing current events and school problems, and recognizing or praising group accomplishments at school. For example, students at this school have engaged in cleaning buses, buying cake for cafeteria staff, cleaning halls to give custodians time off — with hot chocolate as a treat — and making name tags for members of the support staff (Framework for School Success, 2015).

A young teenager requires structured opportunities for developing a sense of responsibility, belonging, and independence. Strong connections and the knowledge that caring adults are present have the potential to help students avoid risk-taking behaviors that might inhibit the fulfillment of their life goals. Effective advisory programs can significantly influence individual students and the overall school atmosphere. Advisory program design is centered on the following key goals and questions:

(1) Development of a common vision pertaining to program goals, purpose, and outcomes; (2) frequency and scheduling; (3) grouping and size; (4) advisory content and curriculum; (5) advisory roles; (6) assessment; (7) support and training for advisory program heads and advisors; and (8) creation of meaningful links between advisory activities and goals and other academic or school-wide targets (Center for Social and Emotional Education, n.d.).

School advisory programs foster healthy student growth, facilitate academic success, and offer various opportunities for bridging the gap between academic achievement and healthy development. These programs help ensure that every student has an adult at school with whom he or she is well-acquainted. Advisory facilitates the creation of stronger bonds among young people, often cutting across the exclusionary groups typical of school environments. It provides a "security blanket" for addressing teenagers' concerns and offers an ideal setting for teaching and practicing key life skills. An advisory period encourages students to express their opinions on general school issues and establishes a forum for advisement, educational, career, and college-related coaching that cuts across individual subject areas. In brief, advisory programs foster student achievement and healthy growth directly through monitoring, instruction, and coaching, and indirectly by increasing students' attachment to their schools (Poliner and Lieber, 2003).

School reform experts have recommended advisory programs for many years as important opportunities for students to connect with caring adults. The Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development (1989) stated that every child ought to have a chance to rely on adults for help in understanding physical changes, navigating relationships with friends, family, and acquaintances, and learning from personal experiences. This adult should be charged with acting on students' behalf and serving as a resource necessary for student success. Accordingly, the Center for Social and Emotional Education (CSEE) contends that students with a strong connection to a caring adult are more likely to avoid the kinds of behaviors that thwart their success.

A school advisory program can profoundly affect both individual students and the overall school climate. Federal legislation has influenced nationwide school reform efforts, generating pressure for improved standardized achievement scores. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 drove numerous school staff members to neglect children's holistic emotional and social needs due to budgetary or time constraints, focusing instead on students' academic and cognitive success. The Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development indicated that a serious mismatch existed between middle school curricula and organization on the one hand, and young teens' emotional and intellectual needs on the other (Gilpin, 2013).