Assessing the effectiveness of school advisors on upbringing and youth community engagement

The research problem and the rationale for its relevance. In an era of global transformation of values that determine the developmental vector of nations and civilizations, the Russian Federation has established traditional Russian spiritual and moral values as the foundation of its statehood. An active agent within the educational system in schools is the School Advisor on Upbringing and Youth Community Engagement. The introduction of this new role in general and secondary vocational education institutions necessitates a scientific understanding of this new educational agent's function and its educational potential, particularly within the context of its interaction with other actors in the educational process and the evaluation of its professional effectiveness. Consequently, it is highly relevant to define the methodological and normative foundations for the criteria and indicators used to assess the effectiveness of this new educational agent and based on these, to develop a diagnostic toolkit. In accordance with this, the goal of research was to develop this diagnostic toolkit, assess the effectiveness of School Advisors on Upbringing and Youth Community Engagement, and analyze the results obtained. Methodology The methodological foundation of this empirical research is based on the principles of the functional and acmeological approaches, which served as the basis for defining the criteria and indicators for assessing the advisors' effectiveness. The research methods employed included: a systematic analysis of scientific literature, a study of best practices in pedagogy, a survey conducted via questionnaire, the method of relative values, and primary pedagogical interpretation of the empirical data. Results The study presents the results of three surveys conducted between 2023 and 2024. It provides a description of the criteria framework for the developed diagnostic toolkit. The principles for constructing questionnaires for three respondent groups were defined: school administration, teaching staff, and the School Advisors themselves. The survey results are presented, including a quantitative and qualitative analysis for each group. The research demonstrated that the high effectiveness of the Advisors in fulfilling most of their assigned functions is determined by their personal and professional commitment. In conclusion, proposals for further research prospects are formulated. The scientific novelty of the study lies in substantiating the application of the functional and acmeological approaches to assessing the effectiveness of School Advisors on Upbringing. The practical significance lies in the successful piloting of the diagnostic toolkit for evaluating the Advisors' performance and the potential for its implementation across the general and secondary vocational education systems.