Why Relationships Matter: Teacher-Student Relationships Are One of the Strongest Predictors of Student Success

Think about a teacher who really understood your child.

Maybe they realized your child knew the answer but needed a little longer to say it. Maybe they knew when to offer help and when to let your child wrestle with a problem for another minute. Maybe they noticed that the student who rarely raised their hand had plenty to say once they felt comfortable.

Parents notice these relationships. Kids do, too.

Strong teacher-student relationships can play an important role in student success. Across studies involving students from preschool through high school, positive relationships with teachers have been linked with greater student engagement and academic achievement.¹ Research on school belonging has also found connections between students' feelings of acceptance at school and how they participate, behave, and engage in learning.²

At PEAK Mastery, that research has influenced how we are designing relationships between students, educators, and families.

Why Teacher-Student Relationships Need Time to Grow

It takes time to learn a child. As a relationship develops, an educator may begin to notice things that weren't obvious at first.

They may learn that a student shuts down when they think everyone else understands something first. They may remember which explanation finally made fractions click. They may recognize that the student who rarely volunteers an answer has wonderful ideas once given time to think.

Over time, they also get to see what happens next.

The skill that once caused tears becomes manageable. The student who needed constant reassurance starts trying before asking for help. A fascination with bugs turns into an interest in ecosystems, which turns into a project the student cannot stop talking about at dinner.

That history gives an educator context for the child sitting in front of them today.

Research following children from kindergarten into later grades found that their early relationships with teachers were connected to academic and behavioral outcomes years later.³ Research across different age groups has also found connections between positive teacher relationships, student engagement, and academic achievement.¹

A good relationship cannot guarantee how a child will do in school. There are many factors involved in learning and development. The research does give us good reason to pay attention to the relationships children experience at school.

Why PEAK Mastery Uses Coaches

Every PEAK Mastery student would have a licensed educator who serves as their coach and teacher of record. Our current model is designed so that, when possible, coaches can remain with their students for up to three years.

That gives the relationship time to develop.

The coach also has real instructional responsibilities. Coaches would develop personalized learning plans, monitor student progress, assess competencies, coordinate interventions, communicate with families, and work with Foundations teachers, Wonder Workshop teachers, specialists, and other educators supporting the student.

Over time, the coach can build a history with that child.

That history becomes especially useful in a personalized learning environment. A new assessment result has context. A recurring frustration may be easier to recognize. The coach can remember what worked six months ago, what the student has already overcome, and where a new challenge might be appropriate.

For parents, it also means having a consistent person who knows the story behind the conversation.

Why Parent Involvement Matters, Too

Parents bring a perspective on their children that educators don't always get to see during the school day.

You know which interests lasted three days and which ones have lasted three years. You have watched homework frustration disappear because someone finally explained an idea in a way that clicked. You may know that your child worries about making mistakes even though everyone else describes them as quiet.

You also see your child outside school.

That perspective can add valuable context to what educators see during the day.

PEAK Mastery's proposed model gives coaches a central role in family communication. Portfolios, Learning Unit conferences, progress reviews, and student-led family conferences are designed to give families a clearer view of what their child is working on and how they are progressing.

Sometimes a parent may provide the missing piece behind something a coach has noticed. Sometimes a coach may recognize a pattern the family has not seen at home.

We want to create room for those conversations and give parents a meaningful role in understanding their child's learning.

Strong Relationships Can Help Students Take More Ownership

PEAK Mastery wants students to become increasingly capable of understanding and directing their own learning.

That ability develops over time.

Research on motivation has found that autonomy, feeling capable, and feeling connected to others all matter in how students experience learning.⁴ Research on self-directed learning also points to skills such as setting goals, monitoring progress, reflecting, and changing strategies when something is not working.⁵

Those ideas fit naturally into the coaching relationship.

A young student may need considerable help answering questions like:

What am I working on?

How do I know if I understand it?

What should I try when I'm stuck?

When do I need to ask someone for help?

Over time, the conversation can change.

Students can begin setting goals with their coach, looking at evidence of their own progress, reflecting on what worked, and identifying where they need support.

Portfolios, competency tracking, reflection, and student-led conferences are all part of PEAK Mastery's proposed model. They give students repeated opportunities to understand their learning and talk about it with the adults supporting them.

That is one way student agency can grow. A child gradually becomes more capable of answering a very useful question:

What do I need next?

A Sense of Belonging Includes Other Students, Too

Some of the relationships that shape a child's experience at school happen with other children.

A younger student watches an older student solve a problem. An older student discovers that explaining something is surprisingly difficult. Two students disagree about how to approach a project and have to figure out how to keep working together. Someone gets stuck, and another student realizes they know enough to help.

PEAK Mastery's proposed mixed-age learning communities are designed to create opportunities for collaboration, mentoring, leadership, and belonging.

Wonder Workshops give students opportunities to investigate questions and work on interdisciplinary projects together. Extended Learning Experiences can widen that circle through fieldwork, service learning, community partnerships, and other experiences beyond the regular classroom.

Research gives us reason to pay attention to this part of school, too. Students' feelings of acceptance and belonging at school have been connected with engagement, participation, attitudes toward school, and other social and academic behaviors.² Research on school climate has also identified relationships and connectedness as important parts of students' experiences at school.⁶

In everyday life at PEAK Mastery, we hope that means plenty of opportunities to listen, contribute, explain an idea, ask for help, offer help, disagree, work through misunderstandings, and try again.

Giving Relationships Room to Grow

Most of us can remember a teacher who knew us particularly well.

Sometimes what we remember is surprisingly small.

They knew what book we would like. They noticed when we were having a rough day. They expected more from us because they knew we could do it. They remembered something we had told them weeks earlier.

Those moments are difficult to manufacture.

A school can create structures that give relationships time and space to develop.

At PEAK Mastery, our current design includes multi-year coaching, family communication, mixed-age learning communities, student reflection, portfolios, collaborative learning, and opportunities to learn with people throughout the community.

We will continue refining those structures as PEAK Mastery moves through the charter approval process. The research gives us good reason to make relationships and belonging an intentional part of that work.

Could PEAK Mastery Be a Good Fit for Your Family?

PEAK Mastery is currently working through Utah's charter approval process as we develop a proposed tuition-free public charter school for Cache Valley families.

Every family looks for different things in a school. If multi-year relationships with educators, meaningful family involvement, personalized learning, and opportunities for students to develop greater ownership of their learning are important to yours, we invite you to learn more about PEAK Mastery.

Our family interest survey helps us understand what Cache Valley families are looking for and demonstrate community interest as PEAK Mastery moves through the charter process.

Take the PEAK Mastery Family Interest Survey

Research Cited

1. Roorda, D. L., Koomen, H. M. Y., Spilt, J. L., & Oort, F. J. (2011). The Influence of Affective Teacher-Student Relationships on Students' School Engagement and Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Approach. Review of Educational Research, 81(4), 493–529.

2. Osterman, K. F. (2000). Students' Need for Belonging in the School Community. Review of Educational Research, 70(3), 323–367.

3. Hamre, B. K., & Pianta, R. C. (2001). Early Teacher-Child Relationships and the Trajectory of Children's School Outcomes Through Eighth Grade. Child Development, 72(2), 625–638.

4. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The "What" and "Why" of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268.

5. Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a Self-Regulated Learner: An Overview. Theory Into Practice, 41(2), 64–70.

6. Thapa, A., Cohen, J., Guffey, S., & Higgins-D'Alessandro, A. (2013). A Review of School Climate Research. Review of Educational Research, 83(3), 357–385.