April 7, 2009 - In the 2007–2008 school year, all Austin Independent School District (AISD) high schools began implementing the student advisory initiative, designed to ensure that all students had at least one adult in their school life who knew them well, to build community by creating stronger bonds across social groups, to teach important life skills, and to establish a forum for academic advisement and college and career coaching.

In the first year, the following occurred:  

• The advisory steering committees were determined to be valuable in the implementation of the program.
• Although teachers had concerns about how they were personally affected by the implementation of the program, they became focused on the effective implementation and management of the program.
• About half of the teachers reported they were able to develop strong, close relationships with their students.
• More students reported positive feelings about their experiences in advisory/family advocacy groups than reported neutral or negative feelings. However, a considerable percentage of students did not see their advisory/family advocacy groups as facilitating the development of relationships or as creating an environment conducive to personal and academic growth.
• Overall, student survey results were similar for schools that implemented the Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR) advisory/family advocacy model and schools that implemented the First Things First (FTF) model.

 
For more details about AISD’s student advisory initiative , view the full report at:  
http://www.austinisd.org/inside/docs/ope_07-72_High%20School_Redesign_Student_Advisory_Evaluation.pdf