Mentor Programs for New Teachers
Guidelines
Guidelines for Mentor Teacher Programs for Beginning and Experienced Teachers (PDF)
Guidelines intended to provide guidance to school boards in the meeting the following responsibilities:
- Establish program objectives;
- Manage the local mentor program;
- Develop the program design;
- Develop mentor selection criteria;
- Establish school administrator responsibilities;
- Develop mentor training; and
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the mentor program.
Mentor Training
School divisions are required, under the Education Accountability and Quality Enhancement Act of 1999, to provide mentor teacher support programs for new teachers. Increasing student enrollments, a growing number of teacher retirements and growing numbers of teachers migrating to other school divisions represent serious challenges to divisions seeking to ensure the quality of classroom instruction.
While not the entire solution, carefully designed mentoring programs can help school divisions recruit new teachers, improve teacher retention rates and help expand the skills and knowledge of new and veteran teachers.
These modules - and accompanying PowerPoint - provide suggestions on how to train educators to develop an effective mentoring program. Although they can be viewed independently, it is recommended that they be viewed in order.