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Mentor and Induction Program for School SpecialistsThe purpose of this program is to provide intensive, ongoing mentoring support of new school specialists (reading specialists, library media specialists, and school counselors).All four areas of the Kansas Professional Education Standards, as they relate to the school specialist’s specific practice, will be addressed through the formal structure of this program. The four areas are the learner and learning; content knowledge; instructional practice; professional responsibility.The school specialist mentor must have a professional school specialist license in the specific specialty area being mentored. In order to achieve this requirement, a school district can find a mentor from another district if necessary. The school specialist mentor will not be involved in the formal evaluation of the new school specialist.A school specialist mentor must participate in the same mentor training as mentors for classroom teachers. This training can be completed before or during the school year in which the mentoring will take place.The initial mentor training will occur by Oct. 1 of the school year in which the mentoring will take place.Ongoing professional learning and support for mentors will address the following topics:the mentor’s role strategies for building relationships with new teachers/school specialists skills for observation of a new teacher’s/school specialist’s practice, assessment of needs, and strategies to address those needscoaching language and practicestrategies for guiding new teachers/school specialists to use reflection in their practiceskills for guiding new teachers/school specialists in using various types of formative assessment to focus instruction and differentiate for student needs guiding new teachers/school specialists in collecting and analyzing various types of student data to show evidence of learningguiding new teachers/school specialists in their use of content standards when planning lessons/unitsskills in using the professional education standards as a measure of assessing teachers/school specialist practice Structured, intensive support for the new school specialist will occur throughout the first year of employment in the school specialist position. This first-year support will consist of the following:Documented one-on-one mentor-mentee communication on a weekly basis (does not all have to be face-to-face).Documented mentor observations of mentee – virtual or in person – minimum of three over the course of the year.A district-determined system for ongoing mentor-mentee communication for the purposes of providing feedback and engaging in reflective verbal dialogue and problem-solving strategies.If a building or district administrator deems it necessary, a second year of mentoring support will be provided for the new school specialist.This school specialist mentoring program will be evaluated for effectiveness at the end of the year.The school district’s director of HR will be responsible for conducting the program evaluation, analyzing the data collected, and reporting the results to building and district administrators.The program will be evaluated on the following criteria:Content coverageContent depthContent relevanceCommunication frequencyCommunication helpfulnessCommunication system’s usefulnessEffectiveness of mentor’s coaching techniquesValue of observation experienceThe criteria will be assessed through the collection of participant perception data.The participant (mentor and mentee) perception data (both qualitative and quantitative) will be collected through the use of an online survey that will be completed by the new school specialist’s last contract day of the year. Building administrators will be asked to provide feedback (qualitative data) via e-mail by their last contract day.The results of the program evaluation will be used to determine what modifications need to be made to the program for the following school year. ................
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