Educational support encompasses a variety of resources, services, and guidance designed to empower students. It can take many forms, from tutoring and counseling to community programs and online platforms.
At Servisource, we understand how important education support is. Read on for our tips on how to effectively provide it to your students.
Student success
Student success is a top priority for colleges and universities, but it requires the support of multiple stakeholders. Educational support involves a variety of services and resources, including tutoring, mentoring, counseling, and financial assistance. These programs help students overcome obstacles that might interfere with their learning.
Academic support services—tutoring centers, writing seminars, and mentorship programs—are often among the first to feel budget cuts during times of fiscal uncertainty, but they’re some of the most effective strategies for improving retention rates. They also have the added benefit of helping students build confidence and self-esteem, a key factor in student persistence.
In addition to school-based resources, community programs and online platforms offer education support as well. These programs can help students stay focused on their goals and provide valuable skills and tools to help them succeed. In addition, student success platforms can identify early warning signs of academic and emotional distress to guide timely interventions. This helps institutions preserve student outcomes while demonstrating accountability to accreditors and funders.
Family support
Family support refers to all the informal and formal systems that help families with children to function well. These include immediate family members, relatives, friends, neighbors, community organizations, home helpers, and professional therapists and teachers. These support systems can also be formally structured, such as public entitlement programs that provide for housing, food, transportation, and child care.
Academic success is closely linked to the support of students by their families. However, existing studies on family support tend to focus only on parents and ignore extended kin networks. This study aims to address this shortcoming by using panel survey data to explore the association between adolescents’ academic performance and family support in a global context, with GDP per capita and cultural individualism as societal-level moderators.
Beyond emotional and psychological support, many families lack the resources necessary to ensure that their children are able to excel in school. Providing access to basic supplies, quiet space and devices can have significant impacts on student outcomes.
School-based resources
The health and well-being of students is critical for their academic success, but many kids lack access to essential services due to poverty, low incomes, insurance coverage and systemic inequities. School-based health centers, for example, offer medical, behavioral, and dental care, health education and youth development programming in schools where kids already spend most of their time.
These resources are designed to help educators do their jobs better. They’re available in The Dynamic School OT Course or as standalone tools.
Research shows that to promote equitable student outcomes, schools need to address a range of issues including academics, mental and physical wellness, and community support. Providing county-level services and resources through a community school approach is one way to ensure that these needs are met.