Impact

School Based Mentoring Impact Study

School Based Mentoring is the fastest growing form of mentoring in American today. In order to understand its effectiveness and determine if School Based Mentoring is improving the lives of young people, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and Public/Private Ventures partnered together to evaluate the Big Brothers Big Sisters School Based Mentoring Model. The Atlantic Philanthropies, Philip Morris USA, and The William T. Grant Foundation supported the research.

Youths from ten different Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies across the country participated in the 15-month study, which included all of the 2004-05 school year and the first half of the 2005-06 school year. Each child was randomly assigned to participate in either the Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring program or a control group. A total of 1,139 students were involved, half being Littles (children in the treatment group receiving mentoring). After significant analysis, the full report was issued in August 2007.

Year One Impacts

The Results: Big Brothers Big Sisters School Based Mentoring makes a real difference in the lives of our nation's at-risk school children.

The study found that, relative to their non-mentored peers, Littles showed improvements in the following teacher-reported outcomes:

Overall academic performance, specifically in Science, and Written and Oral Communications

Quality of assignments completed

Number of homework and in-class assignments turned in

Reduction in serious school infractions, including principal's office visits, fighting, and suspensions

Littles also improved in the following youth-reported outcomes:

Scholastic efficacy: they felt more competent academically
Fewer skipped school days, which teachers had also confirmed

They were also significantly more likely than their non-mentored peers to report an important additional benefit which was having the presence of an adult in their life who provided them with the types of support BBBS strives to give participants - someone they look up to and talk to about personal problems and encourages them to do their best, cares about what happens to them and influences the choices they make.

Year Two Impacts

By the middle of the second school year, only two positive impacts were found. The first year impacts were mostly not sustained largely because ltitle more than half of the mentored youths (only 52%) had a mentor during the first half of the second school year. Plus, a significant number of youngsters had moved to different school districts or transitioned to a middle school or high school where there were no child mentoring programs. Finally, only 18% of Littles met with a mentor for all three school semesters.

There were still some positive outcomes. Youth in the treatment group compared to those in the control group were:

More likely to report the presence of an important adult in their lives
Less likely to skip school
More apt to believe they would attend and finish college

Big Brothers Big Sisters is setting out to significantly strengthen its School Based Mentoring program in order to produce longer-term impacts. We are dedicated to creating longer, stronger matches. To move toward this goal, the Big Brothers Big Sisters Nationwide Leadership Council and its School Based Mentoring Task Force have recommended a set of strategies consistent with the recommendations from the Study itself:

Lengthen matches
Bridge the summer gap and increase match contacts
Provide volunteer training and enhance match support to improve metric results
Deepen school partnerships
Deepen corporate and business partnerships

To read the full report, go to PPV.org.

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