Mentoring Middle School Students: A Program Evaluation

Abstract

This work examined the effectiveness of a first year middle-school-based mentoring program on improving the overall achievement of at-risk students. The literature on school-based mentoring was reviewed to determine variables used to examine the effectiveness of school-based mentoring programs. Following a quasi-experimental design, three sets of pre- and post-test quantitative data was collected and analyzed regarding students’ academic performance, attendance, and behavior referrals and compared against those of a control group. Mentoring was found to have differential effects on students’ GPA, total and unexcused absences, and behavior referrals. Implications for future research are discussed.