Abstract
In the economically depressed regions of San Jose, California, nearly 30% of children never finish high school. At-risk children who have their lives affected by poverty, single parent homes, abuse, and gang influence make up a large percentage of these children.
To reach these children early, in 2007 the leadership at Valley Christian High, a local private school, challenged college-bound high school students from the school to help implement a program called “Junior University” offering 1-on-1 mentoring of nominated at-risk elementary age children. The program required a one-year commitment from the high school student. Further, they were given the title of “Junior Professor” to create a belief in the mentored children that college could be in their future. With the time commitment, the number of students, and the financial investment, it is critical to measure the effects the program is having. The State of California required every child from grades 2 through 11 to take the CST (California Standardized Test) every year until the test was discontinued in 2013. The CST is part of the STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) program used throughout the entire public school system in the state until its discontinuance. The study contains data from this standardized testing for a control group and a test group numbering approximately 50 records for each group and statistical analysis was performed to draw conclusions regarding the effectiveness of the program. The findings were conclusive that mentored students increased their scores much more frequently and with higher reliability than did the control group. The implication is that the program is working but more emphasis must be placed on students with scores that declined year to year. The cause of the falling scores could be an indicator of other causal factors in students’ lives. The program should be expanded with other college-bound high school students from local schools joining with the single school now involved to mentor more children.
|Keywords: Mentoring, Valley Christian, Junior University