This is the time of year when school leaders reach out to ask for help with their advisory programs. It’s the time of year when they admit that their last great idea to improve advisory wasn’t sustainable. It’s the time of year they start dreaming about how to improve the program for next year.
Below are the top four reasons advisory programs don’t deliver on their intention—which is to ensure that every student has a trusted adult advocate at school. Use the spring and summer to talk through these four obstacles with your team, and take steps now to move your advisory program from floundering to flourishing.
- There’s nothing to do or there’s too much to do.
Repeatedly, we hear two criticisms from teachers and advisors: (a) “Our school has an advisory block but we haven’t been told what to do with it or given any training, so it ends up being attendance and announcements” OR (b) “We have advisory but there’s no time for advising because they give us too much stuff to cover. Instead of a time spent focusing on building relationships and advising, it feels like another class.”
In the schools where advisory is flourishing, content is used as a connector. Meaningful curriculum, exercises, and activities are provided as a support to advisors and promote healthy engagement and conversations with their advisees. There is a Goldilocks paradox at play: giving advisors nothing leaves them feeling unsupported and unsure of what to do while giving advisors too much to do interferes with their opportunity to build authentic relationships. If you oversee your school’s advisory program, ask yourself: Is the material I am providing to advisors this week giving them the greatest possible opportunity to build authentic, boundaried, and healthy connections with their advisees?” Content is a connector but you have to get it right.
- Advisors are not given adequate training or support.
Despite extensive research that correlates positive academic and developmental outcomes in youth with their connection to at least one trusted adult at school, few guidelines clarify the limits of appropriate connection, care, and trust. To further complicate matters, a mental health crisis among youth, ongoing effects of the pandemic, parents’ rights debates, and teacher burnout are adding layers of complexity to an already unclear role—the role of an advisor and trusted adult at school.
Ensuring that every student at school experiences the positive outcomes associated with advisory begins with professional development that clarifies what an advisor is and is not. An advisor is a promoter and supporter of student potential. They are not a parent or guardian. An advisor is a sounding board and brainstorming partner. An advisor is not a mental health professional. An advisor is a cheerleader, challenger, comforter, and coach. An advisor is not a friend. More extensive training on strategies and tools that help advisors connect with students in healthy and professionally appropriate ways is crucial for advisory programs to succeed.
- There is no established community-wide expectation on the purpose advisory serves.
If you ask middle or high school students what they believe it means to be an advisor, the answers vary from “Someone who brings me cupcakes” to “Someone I have to go talk to if I’m in trouble.” If you ask educators about the purpose of advisory at their school, answers range from “Study hall/prep period” to “The best part of the day, when I can just be with students with no agenda.”
The historical purpose of advisory is to ensure that every student feels they have an adult advocate in the building. Advisory programs have traditionally been defined as a small group of students assigned to an adult, separate from any academic topic, with the explicit purpose of ensuring that every student feels they have an adult in their corner. For a variety of reasons, many advisory programs have drifted from their intended purpose, leading to confused expectations. Working as a school community to outline and specifically define what students should expect in advisory and how they will benefit academically and developmentally, and communicating this expectation to all school stakeholders (including parents/guardians) is a crucial first step toward an effective advisory program.
- Students aren’t involved in planning or facilitating the advisory program.
We know that student buy-in for any program we offer in schools increases when student voice is included at the outset. When students participate in creating, planning, and facilitating an advisory program, they contribute ideas for exciting community-building events we adults might miss, they show up differently in their own advisories, and their excitement for the program ripples to other students.
The end of the school year is the perfect time to invite youth voice to the table to help plan next year’s advisory. Lay down a calendar for the whole year and map out what goes where—orientation to school culture, name games and icebreakers, personality assessments, academic advising, leadership lessons, and team building. At one school that implements OTA advisory programming, students came up with a plan to have every advisory group come up with a challenge for all the other advisory groups. Every other month they hosted an Advisory Challenge Day, where one advisory group put out a challenge to the whole school—think speedy Rubik’s Cube race, stand-on-one-foot-the-longest contest, team cheer, singing competition . . . you name it! Instant community building and advisory bonding, all led by students!
Research shows promising academic and developmental outcomes when every student can name an adult advocate at school. Invest in an advisory program that supports this mission and meets the needs of your unique community. If your program is floundering, or if it’s just in need of a reboot, schedule a meeting with an OTA Implementation Specialist to learn more about how we can support you in designing an advisory program that promotes connectedness and enhances the school experience for all.