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A desire to increase student motivation was the
impetus for beginning the advisory program at Twin Oaks High School. Each student
enrolls in school at orientation, and develops a career/educational plan which focuses the
student on completion of a course of study with a graduation date goal and a tentative
career goal. The plan allows the student to set goals, not just for graduation, but
also for credit completion for each trimester and for each week. Credits are tracked
weekly on posted rosters in prominent places throughout the school. Each
teacher issues "credit cards" which track daily progress. Approximately 15
hours of schoolwork will earn a student one credit. Teachers initial boxes on the
"credit cards" as students complete work. This helps students visually
track their progress toward credit completion. This educational plan is a tool that
allows the students to determine how they can work toward their high school diplomas, but
more importantly, to obtain the skills that will serve them in their life pursuits.
These skills are found in the expected schoolwide learning results (ESLRs) that are the
basis for all instruction. Each week teachers meet with their groups of advisory
students and discuss school work progress, credit completion, goal-setting, school issues
and character-building topics. Advisory teachers help students solve problems and
tackle life's issues, thereby resulting in progress toward maturity. The advisor
provides for these at-risk students the "someone in their corner," an advisor, a
mentor, a coach, a liaison, an advocate, the adult role model they do not often have in
their lives.
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