Christine Francisco, Coordinator,
Office of Mentoring and Service-Learning (OMSL)
Tel: 415.2393771, or cfrancis@ccsf.edu
Target population :
Students who are not academically well prepared and/or who face
multiple challenges of limited English language proficiency, limited
academic experience, multiple responsibilities of raising a family,
working full-time and attending college. Peer-mentors, who were
often mentees themselves, are available to work with all students
who are at-risk in the course or program. Peer-mentors work to
improve outcomes for special populations: they work with students
with limited English proficiency on the language support necessary
to understand and succeed in the labs, the classroom and the
curriculum, and they provide practice and support with the equipment
and the technological vocabulary necessary to be successful; for
economically disadvantaged students and single parents who have
difficulty managing their time with competing responsibilities at
school, work, and home, mentors, who have been through the same
difficulties, offer coping skills
Goals:
Provide vocational education students in 12 TOP Code areas with peer
mentoring support targeted to their needs so that they can
successfully make progress through and complete their vocational
programs and be ready to enter the job market in their field of
interest.
Description:
Sixteen CCSF faculty are sponsoring peer mentoring projects in 12
TOP Code areas to work on barriers to success and program
completion. The mentoring will be supervised on site by the faculty
sponsoring the projects. Mentoring will be provided either
one-to-one or in small groups throughout the semester and will
enable students who otherwise might drop or fail to move
successfully through their vocational programs and learn the job
skills necessary for employment in their field of interest, thus
addressing Core Indicators #1 and #2 by increasing student success
and ability to successfully complete their coursework, leading to
greater course or certificate completion. Students at risk receive
mentoring from their peers, students very much like themselves who
have successfully completed the targeted classes or programs. They
provide academic support and an ongoing relationship of social and
peer support. Many mentees need increased access to the services
that CCSF provides, and mentors are trained to make referrals to
services. The ongoing mentoring support and the relationship that
develops with the mentor make a crucial difference in student
outcomes
Staffing:
Peer-mentors, Faculty Sponsor, a general office that can support the
program in paperwork requirements.
Facilities, equipment, materials:
Peer-mentoring takes place in labs, classrooms and other college
sites. Equipment is unique to the course/discipline and is provided
by the vocational program. The OMSL distributes an RFP. Faculty
respond with a proposal that establishes need and goals. The OMSL
pays Faculty a stipend of approximately $350 per semester to
supervise the project and peer-mentors $9 hr as student lab aides
for their mentoring work.
Costs, funding source:
Each project costs around $2,000 a semester to run. This includes
the faculty stipend and lab aide funds to pay the peer-mentors. A
VTEA grant funds a majority of the student lab aide funds. The
institution covers the remainder of the student lab aide funds and
the faculty stipends. A small percentage of the students volunteer
to be peer-mentors.
Outreach and marketing:
The faculty provides the outreach to mentors and mentees. The OMSL
provides general information about the projects.
Evidence of effectiveness:
Generally, of those CCSF vocational students receiving mentoring 86%
received a grade of "C" or higher, and specifically, of those
students in top code areas that were targeted for improvement in
Core indicator #1, 81% of the mentees received a grade of "C" or
higher as compared to only 49% of those not receiving mentoring. In
addition, the withdrawal rate among vocational students being
mentored was 5% as compared to those vocational students who were
not mentored who had a withdrawal rate of 28%, and specifically, of
those students in top code areas targeted for improvement in
retention, those mentored had a withdrawal rate of 4% as compared to
the non-mentored rate of 35%.
Students and faculty complete questionnaires to evaluate their
mentoring experience. Comparable to the results of last year’s
questionnaires, of the mentees who responded, 70% rate their
mentoring experience as "excellent" with 28% reporting it as
"satisfactory". In reporting the benefits of peer-mentoring, 85% of
the respondents reported that they understood the course material
better because of the peer-mentoring. 63% said the peer-mentoring
increased their problem solving and critical thinking skills.
From the faculty perspective, 82% felt that the mentees benefitted
by being able to stay in the course and not drop and improve their
course grade and 94% agreed with the mentees that the peer-mentoring
increased problem solving and critical thinking skills . From the
mentors’ perspective, 94% felt that mentees understood the course
material better.
Over the last four years peer-mentoring has become an integral part
of vocational courses and programs. Many faculty members say they
would not be able to provide the same quality of instruction and
educational experience without the peer-mentor program. They echo
the reports that peer-mentoring increases student success in the
classroom and the working world. Jennifer Biehn, Microcomputer
Business, says: "50% of students are at-risk and because of this
semester’s peer mentoring program, they stay in class instead of
dropping out. 90% of the mentees increase their grade by at least
one grade level." Terri Winston, Broadcast Media Arts reports: "The
enrollment of women in advanced classes (under-represented students)
has remained steady at 41%. This semester peer mentors have been
placed at GRAMMY winner Tracy Chapman’s studio, The Plant Recording
Studios and OTR studios. Former mentors are now working at Cutting
Edge Audio, TransAudio and Portrero Post."
Suggestions for replication:
Faculty select appropriate former students to act as peer mentors.
The OMSL provides a 6 week general mentor/peer-support training.
Faculty communicate with mentors throughout the semester and advise
and trouble-shoot. It is very easy to replicate. Being able to pay
the peer-mentors is a big incentive. Mentors themselves gain great
skills in the subject area as well as experience in leadership
roles.