The effects of mentoring on school-aged children as perceived by their mentors, teachers, and parents

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the children in grades kindergarten through eighth in the Menomonie, Wisconsin School District, who received mentors through the Positive Alternatives School Mentor Program, had improved school performance in the areas of academic success, attendance, and attitudes toward school as perceived by their teachers, parents, and mentors. Data was collected at the end of the 1999-2000 school year from the teachers, mentors, and parents of the students who obtained mentors throughout the school year. The Menomonie School Mentor Program is a mentoring program designed to help at risk elementary school students. Adults or mentors are paired with the students and spend an hour each week on school grounds with the students. It is not an academic based program. Mentors can help the students with homework, but their function is as a mentor not a tutor. The instrument was designed to measure the nine main objectives in this study. The instrument was a survey given to the teachers, parents, and mentors of the 42 students who participated in the School Mentor Program at Positive Alternatives Inc. near the end of the 1999-2000 school year. Measured was whether or not the teachers, parents, and mentors of the students in the School Mentor Program felt that the students improved, after being paired with the mentor, in the areas of academics, attitudes toward school, and school attendance. Only five of the teachers returned the survey. All five (100%) felt that the students who participated improved in all three areas: academics, attitude towards school, and attendance. Only four of the parents returned the survey. Again, all of them (100%) agreed that the program benefited their children in the areas of academics, attitude towards school, and attendance. Due to the low return rate, no clear conclusions could be drawn, but there seems to be agreement that mentoring does have some benefit. Thirteen of the mentors returned the surveys. Eighty-five percent of the mentors felt that the program benefited the students academically. Seventy-eight percent felt that the childrens’ attitudes improved after being involved in the program and 62% felt that the children’s attendance improved.