Michael J. Karcher, Ed.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Education and Human Development at the University of Texas at San Antonio.� He received a doctorate in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University and a doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.� He conducts research on school-based and cross-age peer mentoring as well as on adolescent connectedness and pair counseling.� He currently conducts the Study of Mentoring in the Learning Environment (SMILE), which is a three-year research project funded by the William T. Grant Foundation to examine the effects of school-based mentoring.Eric L. Einspruch is a Senior Research Associate… and Project Director at RMC Research Corporation in Portland, Oregon. He received his B.A. with an emphasis in human ecology from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington and his M.S.Ed. in counseling psychology and his Ph.D. in educational research and evaluation from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Much of his experience with large-scale data analysis was acquired while working in the Office of Institutional Research at Miami-Dade Community College. He has taught courses in statistical methods and in computer applications in educational research. He is currently involved in the evaluation of school-based and community-based social service programs. His publications have appeared in the Florida Journal of Educational Research , International Journal of Early Childhood , Journal of Counseling Ps ychology, Journal of Drug Education , Journal of Primary Prevention , Psychotherapy in Private Practice , and Reaching Today's Youth . He is active in the Oregon Program Evaluators Network, a local affiliate of the American Evaluation Association, serving as charter Secretary in 1999 and 2000 and as President in 2003.