Students who connect to a trusted adult at school were 10% to 20% more likely to take advanced coursework and have slightly higher GPAs on average, according to research by Equal Opportunity Schools and the Center for Trust and Transformation cited in a K-12 Dive article.
More than three-quarters (77%) of students reported having a trusted adult in at least one year between 2016 and 2020.
Teachers were the most commonly named trusted adults in schools, followed by others including counselors, coaches, school leaders, office staff and custodians.
Trust between students and educators can have social, emotional and academic benefits for students, according to the research. Schools can improve student outcomes by better aligning trusting relationships to student-centered decisions and opportunities.
Data from more than 1.8 million student records, 77,000 staff records, 1,404 schools and 450 districts from the Equal Opportunity Schools network were analyzed for the study.
A separate but connected study from the Learning Collider analyzed more than 284,000 observations for 10th and 11th grade students from Equal Opportunity Schools who were not already enrolled in AP classes and had a GPA of at least 3.0. Among those students, about 45% did not receive a teacher recommendation for more rigorous coursework. About 24% of this population had neither a teacher recommendation nor a trusted adult connection.
Opportunities existed for more advanced coursework and the students appeared ready for the challenge, but “the connection between the two was far from automatic,” a summary of the study said.
“These studies reinforce how much trusted relationships matter in schools,” says AJ Gutierrez, CEO of Equal Opportunity Schools. The next step is to explore how to turn trusted school-based relationships into opportunities for students, he says.
“We still have more to learn about how schools can do that consistently and at scale,” Gutierrez says. “With so many schools confronting disengagement and chronic absenteeism, understanding that connection has never been more important.”
K-12 Dive
