Advisory and the Ethic of Care

The Advisory Guide: Designing and Implementing Effective Advisory Programs in Secondary Schools

At its root, Advisory is the soul of SLA. Advisory is a four-year relationship between a teacher, twenty students and their parents that ensures that every student in the school has an advocate -- one teacher to whom they know they can always go for help. For parents/guardians, Advisory is a pipeline to the school. It gives them a point person for communicating with the school. In addition, there are two report card conferences each year at which parents, advisors, and students can address academic and social achievements and challenges. Advisory programs promote healthy student development, support academic and personal success, and provide an ideal setting to teach and practice important life skills. At SLA, one of the major goals of the freshman year advisory program is to help ensure each student has a healthy, productive and enjoyable transition to high school. For students, it is a time of searching inwardly to find who they are and searching outwardly to find their place as a member of a new community. Students learn best when they have a sense of community, feel heard and known, and feel safe enough to take risks. Many students will be challenged academically for the first time and will need to quickly develop skills to ensure a successful high school career.

In the upper grades, the advisory program continues to support students’ academic and personal development, with an emphasis on assisting students with their ILP and post-secondary planning. Advisors collaborate with the ILP coordinator and guidance counselor to ensure that students successfully complete their internship programs and guide students through the college admissions process. Advisory class meets twice per week for 40 minutes. Students are given school-related information and have the opportunity to participate in discussions, exercises and activities that assist them in developing competencies critical to achieving optimal academic and personal success.

The Advisory curriculum topics: 

• School orientation - Adjustment to new school, school design, acquaintance with school community and scheduling issues 

• Academic skills support - Goal setting, study skills and time management 

• School spirit - Communication and implementation of student government initiatives, athletics,  academic contests, and club promotion 

• Peer relations and effective social skills - Discussions on adolescent issues (coping strategies,  bullying prevention, self-esteem building, and good decision making) 

• Career exploration - Interest inventories, research, projects, interviewing, and resume writing 

• Current events - Philosophical inquiries, discussions and reflections on issues that affect and  shape our thinking

Benefits to the students: 

• Increases likelihood of academic success. 

• Personalizes students’ educational experience by having a four-year relationship with a caring adult. 

• Gives students space where they can interact with their advisors and each other as people, outside of the demands of a subject-specific curriculum. 

• Ensures that every student has at least one adult in the building who they know will serve as their advocate. 

• Allows students to participate in discussions on topics that may not be covered in their academic subjects, but are nonetheless important for their development of self-concept, identity, values and character. 

• Provides students an opportunity to learn important academic and interpersonal skills that are critical to success. 

• Individualized attention to the development of career awareness and post-secondary planning. 

Benefits to the parents: 

• Allows parents to build a four-year relationship with an advisor who knows their child well. 

• Gives the parents a point person in the school community who can help them with questions about their child’s academic progress. 

• Provides a smooth parent-advisor conference as opposed to having brief meetings with multiple teachers. 

• Assures parents that a caring and concerned adult will respond to visible changes in their child’s attitude and behavior. 

• Increases communication between home and school. 

Benefits to the school: 

• Positive relations between students and teachers. 

• Increase sense of trust and belonging. 

• Promotes better communication among all members of the school community. 

• Creates a strong atmosphere of equality. 

• Reduces student engagement in risky behavior. 

• Provides support and serves as a resource for students who need extra guidance. 

Expectations

• How do you set your students up for positive behaviors?

• Is your student handbook aspirational? or a list of punishments?

• Example: SLA Rules 

  • Respect yourself.

  • Respect the community.

  • Respect this as a place of learning.

Humane Professional Development

• What does professional development look like in your school or district?

• Do you demonstrate (in your professional development offerings) the same values for learning, that you strive to create for your students?

• When is your professional development scheduled? Are you maximizing the positive impact of those minutes?

• Can the members of your learning community make choices for how they spend at least a portion of their professional learning time?

• Different Learning Management Systems - Moodle, Canvas, BlackBoard, Schoology, Haiku