Improving Mentoring Program Fidelity through Ecological Consultation: A Community-University Partnership

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article describes the process of ecological school consultation within a university’s place-based community engagement initiative. Within higher education, place-based initiatives are geographically specific partnerships between community organizations and a university. First, this article explains the collaboration between a middle school and a university-based consultant. Conceptual and practical contexts for the partnership, mentoring program, and consultation process are provided. Next, the article describes steps in the ecological consultation process, highlighting the consultant’s role in facilitating a problem-solving process and in advancing mentoring program implementation fidelity. The fidelity intervention increased mentor adherence to the program’s components (F(2, 531) = 16.861, p < .001), which were identified as being critical to the program’s potential to enact positive changes with students. Implications for school-based mentoring programs and recommendations for consultation are provided. Finally, strengths and limitations of this descriptive study and of the statistical methods (ANOVA) used to evaluate program adherence are discussed.