Executive Summary

This report summarizes the findings from a national evaluation of mentoring programs funded under the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Student Mentoring Program. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requested that the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) within ED oversee an independent evaluation of the Student Mentoring Program. In 2005, ED contracted with Abt Associates and its team of subcontractors, Branch Associates, Moore and Associates, and the Center for Resource Management, to conduct the Impact Evaluation of Student Mentoring Programs. The impact evaluation used an experimental design in which students were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group. Thirty-two purposively selected School Mentoring Programs and 2,573 students took part in the evaluation, which estimated the impact of the programs over one school year on a range of student outcomes. The evaluation also describes the characteristics of the program and the mentors, and provides information about program delivery.

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