Connecting for Success

The popularity of mentoring and school advisory programs has skyrocketed in recent years. Among other benefits, these programs increase “social capital,” the ability of students to build strong relationships with teachers and other adults. Not surprisingly, research demonstrates that when students experience high social capital, they also demonstrate higher academic achievement.

While their parents vote in district school elections, students at Middletown Village Elementary School will vote for their favorite authors. Teachers Kelly Collete, Amy Leitner, Damien Font, Susan Dzugan have partnered first and fifth grade classrooms to collaboratively study various children’s authors, create a campaign for their favorites, collect and analyze the voting results, and write congratulatory letters to the winners!

Abraham Lincoln Middle School in Passaic, NJ, one of the state’s largest middle schools with more than 1,600 seventh and eight grade students, is also a school with high social capital. Every student is part of a Small Learning Community in which teamed teachers work together to monitor individual student progress and to articulate high academic standards for their learning community members.

Already, nearly 30% of Red Bank Regional High School students benefit from participating in a Small Learning Community, and that number will be heading towards 100%! Building on the successes of their 9th Grade Academy’s pilot year and their existing Academies of Finance, Information Technology, and Visual & Performing Arts, principal Jim Stefankiewicz is using a $1.25 million U.S. Department of Education Small Learning Communities grant to create additional programs in Humanities, Math & Science, International Studies, and Sports Medicine & Management.

When students interact with a variety of positive adult role models, the entire school community benefits from the connections they make.