How can a high school advisory and mentoring program be established? Schools report that more and more students seem to slip through the cracks or are lost in the shuffle. More students fail ninth grade than any other grade level. William Glasser (1986) estimates that schools fail to engage more than half the students because they fail to fulfill four basic human needs for students: to belong and love, to gain power, to be free, and to have fun. Schools are turning to advisory and mentoring programs as a way to insure that each student is known well by at least one adult in the building, an adult to whom the student can turn for help with both school related and personal issues. Its purpose is to personalize the institution in order to better meet the needs of students. Advisors typically serve as the initial point of contact for parents and monitor the student's progress. Most of the literature about teacher advisory programs is written for the middle level, but the concept is gaining acceptance and popularity in high schools, as well. Effective high school advisory programs address the following key areas: (1) Advisory Goals in the Domain of Relationships and Self-Esteem; (2) Advisory Goals in the Domain of Academics; (3) Possible structures of advisory programs; (4) Characteristics of an effective advisory program; (5) Administrative considerations in establishing a program; (6) What parents and community members can contribute to the advisory program; (7) Seven reasons why teachers resist advisory programs; and (8) Five of the most common reasons advisory programs fail. (Contains 7 online resources.)