The story is a familiar one. Your hardworking, easy-going child heads off to middle school and somewhere around the middle of September morphs into a surly couch potato.

Homework? Chores? Remembering to bring home papers and books? Tell it to someone who cares.

Or your high school freshman decides school is boring. The teachers are dumb, the classes are meaningless and none of the stuff in the textbooks will matter in the real world.

Sound like a teen you know? If so, you're not alone. In fact, one of the most common challenges parents and teachers face is motivating kids who begin to struggle in school.

Sometimes these struggles are a sign of undetected learning disabilities. Occasionally, they signal a mismatch of teaching and learning styles. Sometimes, according to John Tucker, they just need a little help from another caring adult.

Tucker should know. As executive director of the Youth Development Corporation in Lansing, Michigan, he coordinates a mentoring program for struggling middle school students. The program, called Spartan Friends, served 60 students last year and hopes to serve 100 this school year.

"The program grew from an employment program of the Youth Development Corporation," Tucker said. "Schools asked for help working with students who are struggling academically."

Students are referred by school counselors, who look for kids who are crashing and burning in middle school, despite previous success in elementary school. They are then paired with volunteer mentors from Michigan State University and Lansing Community College. Mentors spend at least four hours a week with students. Two of those hours must be spent tutoring; the rest of the time is spent having fun.

"We don't make the kids any smarter," said Tucker. "We just provide the one-on-one attention they need to bring out their potential." 

Mentoring Means Results

Parents are key partners in the Spartan Friends Mentoring program, making the program unique, according to Tucker. Along with their child and the mentor, parents have to sign an agreement to participate in the program. Then they are kept informed of progress and celebrate each success.

In this mentoring program, there’s a lot to celebrate. Students who started in fall 2000 had grade point averages of 1.3 on a 4.0 scale. By the end of the school year, 10 had averages of 3.0 or higher. And 80 percent of them improved their grade-point average 1.0 or more. At the end of the year, students with the highest grade point averages earn trophies.

Better yet, Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan has recently raised the stakes by offering $2,000 scholarships to all who earn a 2.6 grade point average. This award increases $1,000 per semester for students who maintain a 2.6 grade point average throughout their high school careers. Not a bad payoff for students who started out with D+ averages.

"If anyone had told my daughter a year ago that she would receive a trophy for academics, she would have laughed at me," said one mother, whose daughter won a trophy last year for having the second-highest grade point average in the program.

Tucker urges parents not to give up on a child who shows potential, but seems to be failing. He worries that some parents fail to ask for help when a child performs poorly because they fear it’s a reflection on them.

"Sometimes just getting someone else involved can be the answer," said Tucker. "A kid can turn off their parents, but listen to the same advice from another adult."

Another unique feature of the program is its focus on school success and academic learning. Many mentoring programs, including former Attorney General (now Gov.) Jennifer Granholm's 2000 for 2000: Michigan Mentoring Initiative, focus more on prevention of violence, crime or substance abuse.

In fact, research conducted by a national research organization, found that mentored youth were:

  • 46 percent less likely to begin using illegal drugs
  • 27 percent less likely to begin using alcohol
  • 52 percent less likely to skip school
  • 37 percent less likely to skip a class

"Relationship is what's important," said Tucker, "not so much what you do but how you build a relationship." 

Linda Wacyk is a former EduGuide editor from Grand Ledge, Michigan.