High-Performing Inner-City Adolescents Assist Low-Performing Peers in Counseling Groups

Operating from the theoretical base that the adolescent social system and group procedures could be incorporated into strategies for improving the school performance of disadvantaged students, a supervised program of peer leadership in counseling and study groups was developed for a group of inner-city high school students. A method of training students to be peer leaders in the groups was developed, and the effects of the program on the academic performance of the selected students were evaluated. In the demonstration program, the example of achieving peers and the support and reinforcement of a group with similar goals provided the impetus for inner-city high school juniors to develop better classroom skills, higher grades, and higher levels of vocational and educational aspirations and expectations.