What should be the most basic goals of a quality induction program?

What is "Induction"?

What are the essential components of a quality induction program?

What is "Mentoring"?

How is coaching different from mentoring?

Why don't all excellent teachers also make excellent mentors?

Why do mentors in some programs seem incapable of providing quality mentoring?

What evaluation questions should an existing mentor program be asking itself?

• Are there clear program purposes and expectations or goals against which to measure current mentor and/or protege performance?
• Can mentor and protege performance be measured and supported so that the assessment experience is positive, growth-producing, holds participants accountable for effectiveness and results, monitors stewardship for time and other resources, and leads to actual improvement?
• Are there program purposes which are not evaluated?
• Are there program purposes which are evaluated and not attained?
• How do mentors actually use their mentoring time? Is it enough time? What can they and can't they find the time to do?
• Are there mentor roles and tasks defined against which to compare mentors' actual use of time?
• Is there program evaluation that gives you feed back about the extent to which the desired purposes are really happening.
• To what extent are mentors specifically and explicitly trained in how to use mentoring to transform their teaching and that of the proteges?
• To what extent are mentors explicitly trained in how to increase student learning?
• To what extent do mentors and proteges create norms in their own relationship which are different from and better than those in the rest of the school culture?
• To what extent are mentors specifically trained in how to respond positively when nonparticipants in mentoring make comments that are negative or that reflect a misunderstanding of mentoring?
• To what extent do mentors know how to help novice teachers learn and join into the district's other improvement initiatives?
• To what extent do mentors know how to enlist novice teachers in the career-long commitment to be a continual learner?
• To what extent is and should mentoring be used as a tool for school improvement?
• To what extent have mentors discussed and had guidance in how to induct novice teachers into a profession that is in the midst of redefining itself?
• Have mentors been specifically trained in what it is that mentors are supposed to model, when they themselves feel that they are only beginning to become the kind of teachers that we now know we need to be?

Our Mentoring Program is Just Fine. Is There Anything Else We Should Be Doing?"

What are the Financial Benefits of Mentoring? - The Cost of Teacher Attrition:

How can our organization help staff define and attain their career goals?