Many of us have witnessed the impact of a teacher’s focused attention that brought a student out of their shell or enabled them to see themself as successful learners. However, those supports are ad hoc and don’t reach all students—but what if they did?
- What if every high school student could experience the long-term impact of having an educator that is invested and committed to supporting their individual growth and success?
- What if high schools ensured young people become active participants in their own learning by designing intentional spaces for meaningful goal setting, personal reflection, and autonomy?
- What if we strategically tapped into the limitless potential of every student?
We developed Supporting Every Student: Academic Conferencing in High School for and with our partners as a practical guide for practitioners seeking to ensure that every student has the personalized support necessary to succeed.
As the pandemic continues to exacerbate all of our economic and social inequities, it is critical that schools provide structures that foster student agency to increase academic success. Through the development and implementation of strategic supports that allow students to drive their own learning, schools are accessing one of the most effective tools available to support increasing equity in educational outcomes.
What Is Academic Conferencing?
Academic conferencing is a structured approach to student support that guides students in setting and achieving ambitious academic goals. Academic conferencing is an essential tool of a primary person system linking ongoing efforts to build caring, authentic relationships with students to a clear and direct focus on high expectations. Through implementing structures that support purposeful partnerships with students, we can better develop student strengths and support meaningful goal attainment, igniting student interest, agency, and increasing student ownership over their learning.
How Does Academic Conferencing Work?
Through building intentional partnerships between students and dedicated adults, academic conferencing guides students in setting ambitious goals, developing strategies, and reflecting on their academic performance. This resource provides schools with the tools necessary to ensure that every student can receive focused attention from a trusted adult that will support them in achieving academic success. The approach that we developed comprises the following steps:
There is a wealth of research that shows how individual choice and decision-making are drivers of academic performance. Through consistent school-wide application of academic conferencing, we provide students with the skills necessary to claim ownership over their learning, own their progress, and experience success. Through increasing self-efficacy, students can become independent learners that are ready and able to share their skills, talents, interests, and passions with their communities and the world.
Who should download this resource?
This resource is for anyone working with adolescents and looking for practical application of adolescent development research to meet student needs, develop true student-centered schools, build student agency, and prepare students to be the reflective, independent learners we know they’ll need to be successful in high school, college, and beyond.