A new study has been released finding that students benefit a ton from having adult mentors (teachers, coaches, etc.) at school.

You can read a summary of the research at The 74’s article, Higher Grades, Higher Earnings: New Study Ties In-School Mentoring with Huge Benefits for Students.

You can read the actual study here (it’s not behind a paywall).

I’m not sure that you’ll find anyone who is particularly surprised at these findings.

The really important question, I think, is how close can we get to those benefits through having older students in the same school mentor younger ones.

I’ve written a lot about how we try to implement that kind of program at our school, and you can find those posts at The Best Resources On The Value & Practice Of Having Older Students Mentoring Younger Ones.

It’s just not feasible for teachers to have the time to mentor everyone who needs one.

Fortunately, the authors of the study responded to my question about this by saying they plan to study this aspect of mentorship next.