This petition asks Boulder Valley School District in Colorado to fund an advisory program, a form of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), in its middle and high schools. Hundreds of districts use advisory programs as a key tool to improve learning​, help children thrive, and reduce school violence, bullying, and suicides (see footnotes below).

Advisory is a regular time during the school week when students meet in a small group with a trusted advisor to connect with peers, build community, receive academic coaching, and focus on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). Numerous studies have proven that students learn better, feel better, and are safer when they have at least one trusted adult relationship at school. 

Denver Public Schools followed a national trend by establishing a 20-minute advisory period every day in all of its schools in 2021. 

It’s time for BVSD to do the same. 

Most BVSD high schools currently have so-called “advisory” periods, which are in fact optional office hours that few students use. This is a lost opportunity. Let's use part of this time in the schedule for an advisory program for students.

This petition asks BVSD to fund an advisory pilot program in its middle and high schools during the 23-24 school year. This pilot would provide training and stipends for teachers who volunteer and students who opt-in. This pilot would allow teachers to build a curriculum, receive feedback, and collect data so that BVSD can decide whether to make advisory part of the school week for all students. 

Advisory is already happening in varying forms at BVSD schools like Centaurus, New Vista, Platte Choice, and Summit. We have the ideas and talent in our district for a program that Tom Vander Ark, a national education expert, calls "the backbone of the secondary experience."

But the longstanding obstacle to advisory in BVSD schools is the teachers’ union agreement that prevents teachers from having an additional “prep,” or class period. It’s time for BVSD and the Boulder Valley Education Association (BVEA) to find creative solutions so each student can have a trusted adult relationship at school.

Footnotes

1. Students who participated in an SEL program such as an advisory increased their academic performance by 11 percentage points versus students who did not, according to a meta-analysis that looked across 213 studies of 270,000 students.
2. SEL programs like advisory lead to “improved attitudes about self, others, and school” and lower emotional distress. 
3. SEL programs like advisory create safer schools, reduce bullying, and “may curb future violent behavior.”
4. Denver's advisory program was featured on CNN.
5. Adding an SEL program such as an advisory means that 27% of students would improve their academic performance and 24% would have improved social behaviors and lower levels of distress, according to an analysis conducted by researchers at the Loyola University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Superior.
6. "The Most Important Class in High School Isn't What You Think," Getting Smart, Nov. 2022