Student Involvement

Evidence-based Strategies - Examples, Research and Tools

Strategy b: Train and hire former students as outreach workers, peer mentors, peer support group leaders, or tutors or teachers.

Examples

Peer Mentors, in “Making It Worth the Stay: Findings from the New England Learner Persistence Project”
Aiming to ease the transition of new students into an established math class, this program carefully recruited, trained, and supported peer mentors and the new students they would work with.

Peer Tutors/Mentors: Effect on Motivation and Persistence in GED Classroom
Kathleen A. Guglielmi and Gayle Dzekevich
When this RI program trained a recent GED graduate to be a peer tutor/mentor to students, the results included an increase in GED completions, improved student persistence, and the professional growth of the tutor, whose employer noticed and recognized great change.

Tools

Mentor Dos and Don’ts
Somerville Center for Adult Learning Experience (SCALE)
For their investigation into using peer mentors to support new students, SCALE developed this set of mentoring guidelines about how to maintain successful peer mentor relationships (referenced in “Making It Worth the Stay,” pp. 77-78).