Mentor Works Program Profile
2011-2012
Mentor Works Overview MentorWorks is the umbrella term for the school based mentoring programs in Fairfax County Public Schools. MentorWorks began as an initiative in 1999 as a joint venture with the Fairfax County Council of PTA's and Fairfax Partnership for Youth. The mission of MentorWorks is to connect every student to a caring, responsible adult. The goals of this program are: 1) To broaden the scope of mentoring 2) To continue collaboration efforts with MentorWorks partners and 3) To provide appropriate levels of support to schools, business/industry and the community. MentorWorks supports programs by providing: 1) Resources and Support 2) Training and Technical Assistance 3) Communications and Public Awareness 4) Recruiting and 5) Evaluation and Research. Anecdotal evidence from FCPS mentors and mentees as well as individual school reports demonstrate that having a mentor has a positive impact on school behaviors. National Research, such as the Big Brothers Big Sisters School Based Mentoring Study, report improvement in school behaviors associated with school success such as: 64% of students developed more positive attitudes toward school, 60% improved relationships with adults and 62% were more likely to trust their teachers. A majority of schools in FCPS have implemented a program and provide one-to one or group mentoring during the school day at the school site. Mentors are all volunteers and may be FCPS staff, community or business members or even peers. All volunteer mentors from outside of FCPS must comply with the school system's background screening before they begin and all mentors are provided training and on-going support. The Grants and Self-Supporting Fund continues to support this program. Medicaid funding provides $0.1M for the program including a 1.0 mentoring specialist position in FY 2011. Additional information can be found on page 168 of the FCPS FY2011 Program Budget at: http://www.fcps.edu/fs/budget/docs/FY2011ProgramBudget.pdf The MentorWorks website http://www.fcps.edu/dss/ips/ssaw/mentorworks/index.shtml provides comprehensive information about the program as well as news and event information.
Student Summary
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Mentor Works Program Profile
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During the 2010-2011 school year over 5000 students participated in the MentorWorks program. Students were selected based on each school's mentoring mission. One high school, for example, provided mentors for 9th graders that were in danger of not passing. Many programs select students who teachers, counselors or families feel would particularly benefit from a positive role model, enhanced self esteem, or increased confidence. The MentorWorks program believes all students would benefit from a mentoring relationship, and continues to work towards the goal of establishing a mentor for every student. The National Big Brothers/Big Sisters Study reported 58% of the students improved grades in social studies, languages and math. Mentoring supports the Fairfax County School Board Goals and has demonstrated measurable success particularly with Goal 2: Essential Life Skills and Goal 3: Responsibility to the Community. One FCPS elementary school, for example, reported a 10% improvement in student's attendance when the mentor met regularly. In another FCPS school, 83% of the teachers reported that mentored students got along better with friends. In a third elementary school almost 60% of the mentored students reported that they were hopeful for the future. Goal 3 was also supported. A FCPS high school report indicated 7/8 of the students involved in mentoring said it helped them complete service hours and cultivated an attitude of "helping others". In another FCPS high school it was reported that 10 of the 15 mentored students improved their GPA. MentorWorks was included in the Closing the Minority Student Achievement Gap initiative. Mentors are trained using materials based on Best Practices as identified by the national organization, MENTOR. Monitoring and support are provided on an ongoing basis.
Approved Materials School-based mentoring coordinators are provided with the MentorWorks Coordinator's Handbook which has recently been updated. This handbook is a comprehensive compilation of topics for school coordinators to explore, to build and to maintain a successful school program. This handbook provides detailed suggestions and examples to assist with recruiting, training, and matching mentors with students, as well as activities to recognize the efforts of mentors and evaluation tools to determine the effectiveness of the program. Additionally a Training Manual has been produced to insure mentor preparedness. Materials are available to schools via the FCPS 24-7 site, the MentorWorks website and on-going communications. Materials for mentors can also be downloaded from these sites. Recently an award winning booklet entitled Beyond Conversation was created by FCPS staff to provide mentors activities and ideas to use with their mentees. All training materials adhere to FCPS Best Practices and are compatible with the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring published by the national organization MENTOR.
Assessments
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Each school that chooses to have a mentoring program is encouraged to develop a clear mission statement to clarify the purpose of their program and what they hope to accomplish. After the program objective is established individual schools assess their own progress by collecting data pre-mentoring and post mentoring. Materials, including sample surveys and questionnaires are made available to schools via the MentorWorks Coordinators Handbook and the MentorWorks FCPS 24/7 site. Evaluation instruments are tailored to the individuals who will respond. (Surveys for peer mentors, for example, are designed differently than those for adult mentors.) . A variety of evaluation and data collection tools are thus used including but not limited to surveys, questionnaires, attendance records, interviews, and grade reports. GRIP (Goal, Results, Impact Statements and Program Implication) and DATA (Design, Ask, Track and Announce) are the most popular templates and they each produce an easily read one page report. Evaluation workshops are conducted each year for program coordinators to insure current knowledge regarding Best Practice techniques.
Current Focus Research supports the positive impact of mentoring. The goals, thus, of MentorWorks are to maintain and improve existing strategies that have proven useful such as collaboration with the MentorWorks Advisory Council and the Business and Community Partnership Office. The ongoing goal is to expand the number of students being mentored and to encourage staff as well as community members to become involved. Specifically this school year there are two main goals. Goal 1: As part of the participation in the Closing the Minority Student Achievement Gap Initiative , MentorWorks was charged with "Establishing a baseline number of Black and Hispanic mentees for the 2010-2011 school year." Of the recorded students 2280 students were Black or Hispanic . The goal this school year ( '11-'12) is to increase that number to 2394. In order to accurately assess this goal, improvements in reporting and record keeping will be needed. SASI operators and school based coordinators have already been apprised of this and process handouts have been distributed. Accurate data recording will produce accurate reported results. Through a variety of venues including trainings and electronic communications mentor coordinators are made aware of this objective and encouraged to include it in their school's mentoring plan. This goal can be measured by disaggregating the data as it is recorded in the SASI system in June 2012.
Data was retrieved on 3/2/12 from the SASI/iSIS system. It was reported that 1903 Black and Hispanic students were being mentored. (That is an increase of almost 16% from the reported data one year ago but still short of the end of year (June.2012) goal which is 2394 students. Models of successful programs including peer mentor programs are shared via trainings, award opportunities, public awareness venues and electronic means Goal 2: For the past several years MentorWorks has supported high school peer mentoring programs. The goal this year is to establish a baseline number of existing programs and have them reported into the SASI system or directly to the MentorWorks office.
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Support of existing programs will be accomplished by stengthening ongoing strategies such as providing materials and technical assistance for programs, hosting a Peer Mentoring Conference, increasing public awareness and providing opportunities for professional development. This will include training on "FriendWorks" which is FCPS designed guidelines for mentoring between general education and special needs students as well as other models. All high schools will be contacted to ensure accurate reporting of programs. High Schools were surveyed to report the status of Peer Mentoring. 10 High Schools report having peer mentoring programs. Four schools report having more than one model of program. (Lee HS, for example, has two independent programs: one is High School girls mentoring Middle School girls and one is High School boys mentoring elementary school boys. )
Future Focus The two SMART Goals which are anticipated for the future (2012-2013) focus are: 1) To continue to increase the number of Black and Hispanic mentored students in FCPS. This will serve to support the county wide objective of Closing the Minority Student Achievement Gap. 2) In 2011-12 the goal is to establish a baseline of high school peer mentoring programs. In 2012-13, it is anticipated that growing that number by adding at least two new high schools will be achievable while continuing to support the existing programs. Emphasis on public awareness, the encouragement of accurate data reporting, increased recruiting efforts and the continued communications regarding the extrinsic and intrinsic rewards of mentoring will help accomplish Goal 1 as well as Goal 2. MentorWorks will continue to support and strengthen all existing school programs, help initiate new ones and continuously strive to increase the number of mentored students countywide.
Data Narrative MentorWorks was successful in meeting its goal of maintaining its collaboration with the Advisory Council. During the 10-11 school year the council met four times to fulfill its purpose of providing leadership and strategic planning for the services and resources provided by MentorWorlks. MentorWorks also worked collaboratively with the Closing the Achievement Gap Initiative and the Business and Community Partnership Office. This partnership was most visible at two major Partners in Education Events - one in the fall and one in the spring where mentors and mentor programs were honored and featured. A video of mentees and mentors was featured at the spring award ceremony. The ongoing goal of expanding the number of
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students mentored was met and documented through the SASI system. At the end of the 10-11 school year approximately 5500 students were reported as mentored; this was an increase. of approximately 10% from the 09-10 school year. Trainings, presentations, emphasis on recruitment, improving materials, a variety of public awareness strategies (Channel 21, award recognition, presentations at National Conferences and more) and a belief in the value of mentoring all played a role in this increase. Anecdotal evidence from both mentors and mentees as well as school evaluation reports all support the concept that building positive relationships increases success both in school and in the mentee's personal life. One high school mentee, for example, reported that her mentor was her "safety blanket" . Another middle school student reported she learned to focus more on her academics because of her mentor's advice.
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Locations ELEMENTARY Aldrin Elementary Annandale Terrace Elementary Armstrong Elementary Beech Tree Elementary Belvedere Elementary Bonnie Brae Elementary Braddock Elementary Bren Mar Park Elementary Brookfield Elementary Bucknell Elementary Bull Run Elementary Burke School Bush Hill Elementary Camelot Center Camelot Elementary Cameron Elementary Cameron Elementary ALC Centre Ridge Elementary Centreville Elementary Cherry Run Elementary Churchill Road Elementary Clearview Elementary Clermont Elementary Clifton Elementary Colin Powell Elementary Columbia Elementary Crestwood Elementary Cunningham Park Elementary Deer Park Elementary Dogwood Elementary Dranesville Elementary Eagle View Elementary Fairfax Villa Elementary Fairhill Elementary Fairview Elementary Flint Hill Elementary Floris Elementary Forest Edge Elementary Forestdale Elementary Forestville Elementary Fort Belvoir Elementary Fort Hunt Elementary Franconia Elementary Franklin Sherman Elementary Freedom Hill Elementary Garfield Elementary Glen Forest Elementary Graham Road Elementary Greenbriar East Elementary Greenbriar West Elementary Groveton Elementary Gunston Elementary Halley Elementary Haycock Elementary Hayfield Elementary Herndon Elementary Hollin Meadows Elementary Hunt Valley Elementary Hutchison Elementary
Hybla Valley Elementary Island Creek Elementary Keene Mill Elementary Kent Gardens Elementary Kings Park Elementary Lake Anne Elementary Lane Elementary Laurel Hill ES Laurel Ridge Elementary Lees Corner Elementary Lemon Road Elementary Little Run Elementary London Towne Elementary Lorton Station Elementary Louise Archer Elementary Lutie Lewis Coates ES Lynbrook Elementary Mantua Elementary Marshall Road Elementary McNair Elementary Mosby Woods Elementary Mount Eagle Elementary Mount Vernon Woods Elementary Newington Forest Elementary North Springfield Elementary Oak Hill Elementary Oak View Elementary Olde Creek Elementary Orange Hunt Elementary Parklawn Elementary Pine Spring Elementary Poplar Tree Elementary Providence Elementary Riverside Elementary Rolling Valley Elementary Rose Hill Elementary Sangster Elementary Saratoga Elementary Shrevewood Elementary Silverbrook Elementary Springfield Estates Elementary Stenwood Elementary Stratford Landing Elementary Sunrise Valley Elementary Terra Centre Elementary Terraset Elementary Timber Lane Elementary Vienna Elementary Virginia Run Elementary Waples Mill Elementary Washington Mill Elementary Waynewood Elementary Westbriar Elementary Westlawn Elementary Weyanoke Elementary White Oaks Elementary Willow Springs Elementary Wolftrap Elementary Woodburn Elementary Woodlawn Elementary Woodley Hills Elementary
MIDDLE Carson Middle Cooper Middle Franklin Middle Frost Middle Glasgow Middle Hayfield Secondary Holmes Middle Hughes Middle Irving Middle Key Center Key Middle Kilmer Center Kilmer Middle Lake Braddock Secondary Lanier Middle Liberty Middle Luther Jackson Middle Poe Middle Rocky Run Middle Stone Middle Thoreau Middle Twain Middle Whitman Middle
HIGH Annandale High Bryant Alt High Cedar Lane Center Centreville High Chantilly High Edison High Fairfax High Falls Church High Hayfield Secondary Herndon High Jefferson Science & Tech High Lake Braddock Secondary Lee High Madison High Marshall High McLean High Mount Vernon High Mountain View Alt High South County High South Lakes High Stuart High West Potomac High West Springfield High Westfield High
OTHER Central Fairfax County School Adm Center 1 Lacey Center Nancy Sprague Technology Center Plum Center for Lifelong Learning Sideburn Center TSRC South County Government Center Virginia Hills Center
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