Students Learn Responsibility At Higbee

by Ted Rathburn, Principal, Higbee High School & Higbee Elementary

The Life Skills Groups (grades 8-12) were originally started in the 96-97 school year with the desire to increase student accountability, student involvement and student pride in the school. After the first year 96-97, I conducted a survey with each of the groups to get their input as to the effectiveness of the program. There were 30 items on the survey with five of the survey questions requesting a response about how the Life Skills Groups affected them. Over 50% of the responses agreed that the Life Skills Groups were effective.

Each of the teachers that work with students in grades 8-12 serve as advisor for one of the groups. The make up of the groups contain students from the 8-12 grades, with a minimum of 2 students per grade with each advisor. The groups have remained the same each year, placing two 8^th grade students into the group as the seniors in the group graduate. The groups meet on Friday of each week. The first four class periods are shortened from 53 minutes to 45 minutes to allow for the approximately 32 minutes that are used for the meeting times. The groups meet between the 3^rd and 4^th class periods in the morning. 

The key element of each group is the teacher/advisor and their involvement with their individual groups. The counselor and I provide some general areas of dialogue for the teacher and some of those areas include: Peer Pressure, Tobacco and Alcohol Consumption, Drop Out Rates, Teen Pregnancy, Peer Mentoring, Career Planning, Resume Writing, Student School Attendance, and College/Technical School Information. Each teacher/advisor reviews the grades of the students in their group each grading period; meeting with teachers, student, or parents as needed. 

Groups also compete in an intramural program during this time with four different groups competing each Friday in volleyball competition (first semester) and quiz bowl competition (second semester). Some of the funds used for the program come through the Drug Free Schools grant money. Every year each of the groups selects a name. An example of one of the group names this year is "Arnie’s Friends." Arnie is a new 8^th grader to this particular group and his given name is Arnold.

Some of the information that we started with came from the manual that I ordered from the National Educational Service in the spring of 1996. The manual title is "Reconnecting Youth, A Peer Group Approach to Building Life Skills", by Leona L. Eggert, Liela J. Nicholas, and Linda M. Owen. Using this as our beginning resource, we have added a little more each year that is pertinent to our particular school district.

Close the Gap Consortium

Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education          

Missouri Regional Professional Development Centers

For additional information contact: Howard Jones, Project SUCCESS Coordinator.

Project SUCCESS is sponsored by The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education