Naperville Central is planning to implement an advisory program for the 2025-2026 school year, which will be a revision to the current homeroom system. In advisory, an adult will discuss academic progress and organizational skills with a class of students.
This initiative comes in response to staff and student feedback and aims to improve attendance, student engagement and overall academic performance.
SOAR was implemented in the spring of 2022 and was intended to provide dedicated targeted support time via support periods and community building through the usage of homeroom.
“We spent quite a lot of time this semester gathering feedback from staff and students about the current state of homeroom, what parts are working and what parts aren’t,” principal Jackie Thornton said.
In the updated format, the first 15 minutes of the period will be spent doing the same activities that currently occur in homeroom. The other 30 minutes of time will be used for a variety of activities relating to different areas, such as community building or student driven academic reflection.
“I think it’s a good way for us to clean up attendance issues and it will make more sense for students to see why they should be there,” social studies teacher Michael Wilson said.
The program aims to improve how students use their SOAR time, not only during homeroom, but during support as well.
“We’re hoping that there will be a stronger connection between advisory and SOAR support, so more students make a SOAR support that is more aimed to their specific academic need,” Thornton said.
Ultimately, the program is intended to boost student engagement, improve academic outcomes and offer more meaningful support during the school day.
“Overall, we’d like to see attendance increase as well as the purpose of the advisory,” Thornton said.
