The purpose of this study was to determine whether a yearlong student mentoring program, Gems and Gents, would positively affect the amount of discipline referrals and academic achievement of selected 4th and 5th graders determined as at-risk. The measurement tool was the student discipline referral form with marking period grades in achievement and effort. This study involved the use of a pretest/posttest design to compare data from October of 2012, before the intervention was administered, to

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... data from June of 2013, after the intervention was complete. The decline in discipline referrals was significant, but academic achievement scores did not represent a significant increase. In order to seek a decline in student discipline referrals, research in the area of student mentoring groups for at-risk populations should continue as academic achievement showed no significant gains.