Presentation on Data showing that Gunn High School parents and students are more than twice as dissatisfied with counseling as Paly parents and students are with the teacher-advisor system.

1. The Counseling Gap We Can Do Better Palo Alto wecandobetterpaloalto.org May 9, 2011 Gunn Site Council

2. % of parents dissatisfied with... Source: PAUSD 2008 and 2010 strategic plan surveys N=660 Gunn, 460 Paly (2008), 440 Gunn, 240 Paly (2010)

3. % of students dissatisfied with... Source: PAUSD 2008 and 2010 strategic plan surveys N=260 Gunn, 175 Paly (2008)

4. 2008-2009 Comparison of WASC data from Gunn and Paly Source: 2008-2009 WASC self-study reports, Palo Alto High School and Gunn High School N= N=237, Gunn Students N=1209

5. 2008-2009 WASC survey at Gunn Source: 2008-2009 WASC self-study report, Gunn High School

6. Percent of parents who think that improvement of counseling should be a top district priority Source: PAUSD 2008 and 2010 strategic plan surveys N=660 Gunn, 460 Paly (2008)

7. The "New Trier" Advisory Model "The Advisor room provides an antidote to anonymity, a home away from home. It is a comfort for students to begin each day with a mentor in whom they can confide and an advocate on whom they can rely for advice and support.”http://www.newtrier.k12.il.us/media/files/content/New_Trier_Web_Site/Publications/adviser.pdf It’s not just Paly! Paly'ssystem was based on the New Trier Model One of the first faculty advisement systems, begun in 1928 Nationally recognized for excellence Each teacher has 25 advisees, meet daily for 25 minutes Students have the same advisor for all four years Advisors are supported by guidance counselors and college specialists Serve as vital communication link between family and school

8. New Trier High School Nationally recognized, high-achieving public high school Ranked by US News as one of the "Best High Schools" Recognized by NYT, Wash Post, Life Magazine as top school Similar in size to Palo Alto Unified 95% of students attend a 4 year college SAT Scores: Math: 730 Writing: 680 Reading: 700 80% of Seniors take AP classes and 80% score 4 or 5

9. Scholarly Research Strongly Supports Advisory Stanford Professor Linda Darling-Hammond (Darling-Hammond, Ancess & Ort 2002) has shown that advisory is one of the essential strategies used by schools to improve student achievement and to “ensure connections to parents and attention to student needs.” Wasleyand Lear (2001) argue that a faculty advisory system is “the single most important design element" for personalization and student connectedness. A Columbia Teacher's College study (Tocci, Hochman & Allen 2005) concludes that advisory is a core element of most "well-regarded school reform models" and that "advisory is a key mechanism for ensuring that each student will be known well” (Sizer, 1984) by at least one adult in the school. According to Burkhardt (1999) an "advisory system is a simple method that ensures that no secondary school student (middle school, junior high school, or high school) becomes anonymous” (Goldberg, 1997)