The Mentor Who Checks Boxes
Northgate High (1,650 students) hired 14 teachers in the last two years; 9 of the 14 remain. Your mentor program is a monthly 20-minute check-in and a signature sheet. Two of your strongest veteran teachers, both National Board certified, have quietly declined to mentor, saying they "don't have time" and were never asked what kind of support they'd give. One second-year teacher, Mr. Alvarez, received "needs improvement" ratings on two elements of the district evaluation rubric (managing student behavior, using assessment data) in both of the last two observation cycles. His students' pass rate is 41%, and parents praise his rapport. He has not been placed on a formal improvement plan; district rule triggers one only after two consecutive overall "unsatisfactory" ratings, which he has not received.
1. Is Mr. Alvarez a supervision problem or a development problem - and what do you do in the next 30 days?
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It is both, and the distinction that matters is documentation versus support, not discipline versus encouragement.
The pattern is specific and repeated on the same two rubric elements. That is not a surprise requiring more observation; it is a known gap needing a targeted plan. He is not yet eligible for the formal, contractually triggered improvement plan - but nothing prevents a voluntary, non-disciplinary support plan, and waiting for the formal trigger wastes a semester of his students' instruction.
Next 30 days:
- Week 1: one observation with explicit look-fors drawn from the two elements - not a general "let me see you teach." Scripted, low-inference notes.
- Week 1, within 48 hours: feedback conversation. Two goals, not six. Name the behavior, the effect on students, and the replacement practice.
- Week 2: you or the coach models the replacement practice in his room. Modeling beats describing for behavior management.
- Weeks 2–4: 20 minutes weekly, focused on the same two elements. He brings one artifact (a behavior data sheet, a formative assessment result).
- Week 4: checkpoint against a written goal. If no movement, escalate to a formal plan and involve HR/union per the agreement.
Two cautions. Do not let his popularity with parents soften the documentation - rapport is an asset, not evidence of the two elements. And do not build a plan you will not monitor; an unmonitored plan is worse than none, because it converts a support failure into an evaluator credibility problem.
2. Redesign the mentoring program so the two veterans say yes.
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The current program fails on design, not on volunteer goodwill. Twenty minutes and a signature sheet cannot develop a teacher, and both veterans told you exactly what was wrong: nobody asked what they would give.
Redesign principles:
- Differentiate the role. Ask each veteran what she would actually do - co-plan a unit, run a demonstration classroom, coach one teacher on data, lead department planning. Mentoring is not one job.
- Make the first ask small and concrete. "Would you co-plan the first unit of the year with a new teacher?" gets a yes far more often than "will you be a mentor?"
- Pay in the currency they named: time. Release days, a stipend, or relief from a duty. If the answer is "no time," the answer to give is time.
- Match by need, not by alphabet. A first-year teacher's real failure points are grading load, parent contact, and routines - pair accordingly, and build a 30/60/90-day onboarding checklist around those, not around paperwork.
- Measure what matters. Evaluate the program on new-teacher retention and on observation trends, not signatures. Nine of fourteen retained is the number you are trying to move.
One more thing: the veterans' reluctance is information about how the school has treated expertise generally. If the only leadership roles available are committees, you will keep losing your best people to the district office or to resignation.
3. You anticipate two retirements in the next three years. How do you build a pipeline rather than patch vacancies?
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Treat leadership development as a structure with entry points, not as an occasional tap on the shoulder.
Build the structure:
- Open the doors visibly. A short application for instructional-leadership work (data team, climate team, new-teacher support) so access is not reserved for people the principal already knows.
- Give real authority, not titles. A teacher leader with a small budget and a decision to make learns more in a semester than one who attends meetings.
- Stagger the ladder. Demonstration teacher → department or grade-level lead → instructional coach or assistant principal intern. Name the ladder so people can see the next rung.
- Rotate the load. The same three people volunteer for everything; watch the distribution and deliberately invite quieter strong teachers.
- Succession-plan for the two retirements now - identify who inherits which function, and hand over the function, not the paperwork.
The measurement question: are the people you are developing actually moving into positions, inside or outside the building? If your pipeline's output is always external hires, you have a development program that grows other districts' leaders.