Education Week - August 18, 2021 - 16

When Teachers and School Counselors Become
Informal 'Natural' Mentors, Students Thrive
By Madeline Will
For years, the research has been
clear: Teacher-student relationships
matter. And now, a new working
paper shines more light on just how
important these relationships can be
for students' academic success.
Some students form deep connections
with their teachers, counselors,
or athletic coaches, who
are often the adults they see most
often aside from family. And those
bonds may organically develop into
an informal mentorship, in which
educators support students both
academically and socially. These
types of relationships, experts say,
will be particularly important this
fall as students return to school
still grappling with trauma from the
pandemic.
Indeed, according to a national
longitudinal study, more than 15
percent of adolescents identified a
teacher, counselor, or coach as the
adult who, other than their parents
or stepparents, had made the
most important positive difference
in their lives. About 90 percent of
the reported school-based mentors
were counselors or teachers,
and students were most likely to
have met them toward the end of
9th grade or the beginning of 10th
grade.
" These relationships last for many
years in the vast majority of cases,
and in many cases, well after students
graduate from high school, "
said Matthew Kraft, an associate
professor of education and economics
at Brown University and the lead
author of the working paper. " We
know these are not just interactions
that are part of teacher-student relationships
inside the classroom or on
the sports field or in the counseling
office. ... School-based natural mentors
go above and beyond and step
outside their formal role. "
Yet the students who research
shows would benefit the most from
mentoring-namely students from
low-income families-are less likely
to have access to those types of relationships.
Kraft,
Alexander Bolves of Brown
University, and Noelle Hurd of the
University of Virginia analyzed
data from the National Longitudinal
Study of Adolescent to Adult
Health, which followed a nationally
representative sample of middle
and high schoolers for three
decades, starting in the 1994-95
school year. While their analysis is
not proof positive of a causal effect,
Kraft called this " the most robust
empirical evidence to date " on the
relationship between school-based
natural mentors and students' longterm
success.
The respondents commonly said
their school-based mentors gave
them advice and guidance, encouraged
them to stay out of trouble,
and helped them grow up. These
are often long-lasting, close relationships-80
percent of young
people said their mentor remained
actively important in their lives
after they graduated from high
school. The educators helped shape
students' identities, notions of selfworth,
and moral values, respondents
said.
Mentoring is " individualized and
different for every kid, " Kraft said,
but school-based mentors often help
students with their homework, offer
advice, and support them as they
apply to college and navigate the financial
aid system.
And it works: The study found that
when students have a school-based
mentor, they are more likely to pass
their classes, earn more credits, and
earn a higher GPA. And in the long
run, they are 15 percentage points
more likely than students without
mentors to attend college and complete
almost an entire year of higher
education.
Students don't have equal
access to natural mentors
The study found that Black and
Latinx students, as well as students
from low-income families, were
less likely to report having a schoolbased
mentor. White and Asian students-particularly
Asian male students-from
more-affluent families
were the most likely to report being
mentored by an educator.
Kraft said it's not surprising that
fewer students of color have a
school-based mentor because past
research finds that mentors and
mentees often share similar backgrounds.
The teacher workforce is
comprised mostly of white women
from middle- and upper-middleclass
backgrounds.
Past research also finds that
Supporting English-Learners This Fall:
    
The country's 5 million English-language
learners faced unique challenges during
the periods of remote schooling last
year. Some worry that these students
may have regressed in their English
skills. But experts say that they also
   
spending more time at home immersed
in their families' languages and
cultures. This webinar addresses how
educators can best support Englishlearners
this fall, including by teaching
language within content, determining
any gains made in home languages,
and avoiding assumptions on how
much or how little progress students
made in English-language skills.
GUESTS:
 BARBARA LORA, English
Language Acquisition Coach,
Brockton Public Schools
 STEVEN H. WEISS, Senior Researcher,
Understanding LanguageCenter
to Support Excellence in
Teaching, Stanford University
MODERATOR:
 ILEANA NAJARRO, Staff
Writer, Education Week
16 | EDUCATION WEEK | August 18, 2021 | www.edweek.org
adults are more likely to mentor
adolescents whom they see as
being academically gifted, physically
attractive, outgoing, and easy
to get along with. Yet teachers often
have implicit racial biases, and
studies have shown that many perceive
Black students as angry when
they're not.
Hiring more teachers of color,
Kraft said, could help improve students'
access to school-based mentors.
" I
think there's a real paradox in
the promise that mentoring holds, "
he said. " These are more likely to
be relationships that white students
and students from higher socioeconomic
backgrounds develop. However,
we also find evidence that students
from lower socioeconomic
backgrounds appear to benefit most
from natural mentoring. "
School-based mentors are parWednesday,
August 25, 2021
2-3 PM ET
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ticularly beneficial to Asian male
students, the study found, and
Kraft said more research is required
to find out why that is. The study
also found that students from lowincome
families see even greater
benefits than their more-affluent
peers when it comes to reductions
in course failure rates and an increase
in college-going rates.
Jennifer Kline, a counselor at Festus
High School in Missouri, said
she makes herself available to all
students who need help with homework
or a safe space to decompress.
Students who don't have strong support
at home often are the ones who
take her up on that offer, she said.
" I meet the needs of all my students,
but I tend to find the ones
who need that little bit extra and
spend that time with them, " she
said.
For instance, Kline developed a
relationship with one student who
transferred to Festus High School
partway through her freshman year.
Over time, the girl, who had been to
18 different schools and was placed
in foster care at age 16, began confiding
in Kline, telling her things she
had never told anyone else. Kline
helped make sure the student had
more structure in her life, and eventually,
she began to succeed.
That student had a 60 percent attendance
rate when she started at
Festus High School, but by the time
she graduated, she had a 98 percent
attendance rate and had earned all
As and Bs her senior year. She went
to community college, and is now
working to earn both her bachelor's
and master's degrees in social work.
Kline still keeps in touch with her.
" As soon as you treat them as a
person, they start to realize you
care, " Kline said. " When they know
someone's on their side, they don't
want to disappoint you. "
Mentoring is more
common in certain schools
The prevalence of mentorship
in school communities varies significantly,
the study found, with
mentoring rates more than twice
as high in some high schools. The
authors found three significant predictors
of why mentorships develop
in certain schools more than others:
* Students have a strong sense of
belonging in the school community.
* Class sizes are smaller. The
study estimates that for every 10
fewer students in a classroom, the
probability a student forms a mentorship
with an educator increases
by about 20 percent.
* There are more sports teams for
students to join.
Kraft said school leaders should
also focus on fostering a diverse
and supportive school environment
where educators have the capacity
to engage in these informal mentorships.
But leaders shouldn't try
to force these relationships, which
by definition are naturally developing,
Kraft warned: " It wouldn't be
authentic if we tried to take a more
heavy-handed approach. "
This fall, students are expected to
return to classrooms dealing with
trauma, with many having fallen
behind academically during the
pandemic. Strong educator-student
relationships will be key to helping
students thrive, Kraft said.
" When we think about what an effective
school is and does, we need
to expand our vision beyond what
happens inside of classrooms and
on playing fields to those types of
relationships that take place on the
margins of schooling, " he said.

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Education Week - August 18, 2021

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