Student Perceptions Toward a High School Advisory Program

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the impact of a high schooladvisory program in a large, diverse, midwestern, suburban, public high school, asmeasured primarily by a cross-sectional descriptive survey of student perceptions using aLikert-type scale. Specifically, this research study focused on student perceptions towardan advisory program. In addition, this research study correlated student perceptionstoward an advisory program and an advisory teacher, toward an advisory teacher andbelonging at school, and toward an advisory program and belonging at school. Lastly,this research study focused on student perceptions toward the intended outcomes of anadvisory program. The literature review focused on the evolution of college and careerreadiness, the transformation in socio-economic dynamics, the proliferation of mentalhealth issues, the implementation of social-emotional learning, the design of tieredsupport systems, the focus on personalized planning, and the efficacy of advisoryprogramming. To measure student perceptions, a descriptive survey was distributedduring one advisory period to 1,534 students in grades 9 -12 at Primus High School in thePressman School District. From the results of 686 respondents, analyzed by ANOVAsfor the hypothesis testing of RQs 1-4 and RQs 8-23 and Pearson product momentcorrelation coefficients for the hypothesis testing of RQs 5-7, the researcher hasconcluded several key themes about an advisory program: the value of an advisoryprogram for minority students and academically at-risk students, the impact of theadvisory teacher on an advisory program, and the positive relationship between studentconnectedness with an advisory program and student belonging at school.