The students in my school have severe emotional and behavioral problems and my school has few economic resources — can good relationships really help?
Teacher-student relationships contribute to students’ resiliency. Often, we assume that hard-to-change factors such as class size, teacher experience or availability of instructional supplies are crucial for predicting student achievement. In fact, these factors are not as important as positive relationships. In one study of almost 4,000 poor and minority children, the presence of positive relationships with teachers and the experience of a positive and orderly school environment in elementary and middle school were strong predictors of gains in math outcomes—much stronger than class size, teacher experience, or availability of instructional supplies. In another study, urban high school students with behavior and emotional problems were assigned to an intervention involving weekly interactions with teachers, monthly calls to the students at home, and increased praise from adults. Those students involved in the intervention showed higher grade point averages over the five-month interven
