Coaching and Mentoring Program for School Leaders

The Delaware Academy for School Leadership in collaboration with the Department of Education has worked with the New York Leadership Academy to redesign Delaware’s state funded Mentoring Program for School Leaders. Two groups of school leaders from Delaware visited the New York Leadership Academy to learn about the aspiring and the coaching program for new principals. As a result of what was learned during those visits, and the findings from conducting six focus groups of principals, a redesigned School Leader Mentoring and Coaching Program has been approved by the Department of Education.

Delaware’s New School Leader Mentoring and Induction program is designed to help new school leaders transition from theory to reality, build confidence, and provide support from an experienced school leader who can mentor or coach the new school leader, help the leader access needed resources, and help them shape goals for long term professional growth.

As part of Delaware’s Cohesive Leadership system and the Delaware Education Support System, mentoring and coaching of new educational leaders are identified as integral parts of the School Leader Induction program, which consists of:

Developmental Assessment Center
Educational Leader Mentoring Program
DPAS II Training
A Professional Development Continuum

Although new school leaders possess the educational background and the credentials necessary to assume leadership positions in schools and school districts, research has shown that support over the first several years of practice helps new school leaders to:

Hone their leadership skills
Become part of a cohort of leaders in similar roles
Become part of a small learning community
Build job satisfaction
Improve student performance

New school leader mentoring is required by statute.  Research points to the effectiveness of a structured mentoring and coaching program in developing new school leaders and in helping them to grow professionally and to becoming highly effective leaders.  Although there are certain required elements to the program, the New Administrator Mentoring and Induction program is designed to be customized to meet the needs of each school leader.  The program serves as the beginning of a cohesive leadership system, which spans the career of an educational leader.

 

YEAR 1
ASSIGNMENT OF A MENTOR/COACH
FALL INSTITUTE
COMPLETION OF LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE
PLANNING WORKSHEET FOR FIRST-YEAR
PRINCIPALS ©
DEVELOPMENT OF A PERSONAL PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT PLAN
(in consultation with coach/mentor)
DPAS II TRAINING
PARTICIPATION IN SEMINARS SELECTED FROM
A MENU OF OFFERINGS
ONE-ON-ONE MENTORING

The new program will provide a trained coach for first year principals. The coach will be a retired principal who has been trained by the New York Leadership Academy to use the Performance Planning Worksheet. New principals will be trained to use Delaware’s new Performance Evaluation System (DPAS II) and Delaware’s Data Warehouse in year one. In Year 2 principals can request a second year with their coach or be assigned a district mentor rather than a coach. There will be five training sessions offered each year. New principals can choose three sessions to attend. These sessions will be structured much like those at the New York Leadership Academy. The staff at the New York Leadership Academy visited Delaware in January and March 2008 and trained 19 coaches that will be matched to Delaware’s new principals.