Center for Supportive Schools

Program Overview and Background

Peer Group Connection-High School (PGC-HS) is an evidence-based and school-based program that supports and eases students’ successful transition from middle to high school. The program taps into the power of older students to create a nurturing environment for incoming 9th graders. PGC improves skills, knowledge, and behaviors that support academic outcomes such as remaining in school, achievement, increased attendance, lower suspension rates, and, ultimately, graduation from high school ready for college.

PGC-HS is CSS’s seminal peer leadership program and has been implemented in more than 175 high schools since 1979. Achievement Mentoring [also known as Behavioral Monitoring & Reinforcement Program (BMRP) and formerly called Prevention Intervention] is a school-based prevention and intervention program for grades 4 through 11.

Achievement Mentoring promotes successful high school completion by matching students with a school-based, caring adult who will support, encourage, and advocate for their success. The program goals are as follows: to awaken the mentee’s passion about achieving life success – now and in the future; to support students in feeling connected to school in order to enhance their learning and academic achievement; to partner with students in navigating 1-2 potential barriers to high school completion; and to teach effective problem-solving skills and support cultivation of positive habits and patterns of behavior.

Program Services

In PGC, pairs of junior and senior peer leaders meet with groups of 10–14 9th graders in weekly outreach sessions designed to strengthen relationships among students across grades. These peer leaders are simultaneously enrolled in a daily, for–credit, year–long leadership course taught by school faculty during regular school hours. In AM, students are matched with a school–based, caring adult who will support, encourage, and advocate for their success. School–based staff (teacher, social worker, counselor, nurse, psychologist, or youth worker) meet with students during weekly, 20–minute individual sessions. Students receive weekly “report cards” that offer feedback from a teacher on such items as attendance, classroom behavior, and academic achievements. Staff also stay in contact with each student’s caregivers and provide ongoing positive feedback and encouragement as earned.

Target Population

PGC serves all 9th graders in a high school. We primarily target high schools that exhibit high rates of absenteeism, drop out, behavior issues, and academic underachievement, and serve large numbers of students representing subpopulations at disproportionate risk for these problems. Students who are identified in 9th grade as being at particularly high-risk are provided in 10th grade with 1:1 mentoring support by trained, caring adult mentors through Achievement Mentoring (AM).