Mentor Program Information for 2024-25

AWSP is excited to offer mentoring services as a support to our members!

School leaders are now able to request mentoring support directly from AWSP. If you would like to be paired with an AWSP trained mentor, please click on the Request A Mentor button below.

All mentoring requests will be addressed on a first come first served basis. Once a mentor has been selected, you will be notified via email about the pairing, which will include a virtual introduction and contact information for your mentor. 

For Mentors

This year AWSP will be offering mentor academies for currently trained mentors, as well as those wishing to be trained. AWSP is pleased to offer two acadamies this year; one for mentors who identify as BIPOC, the other for mentors who identify as white. These academies will take place in late fall and will be accessible here, once registration is available. There will be no cost to attend an academy, and they will all be held virtually.

All funds for mentoring will now be secured directly through the AWSP office. If you are assigned a mentee you will be provided with an invoice template that can be used to invoice AWSP. 

AWSP and OSPI will be working collaboratively to determine appropriate mentor allocations depending on the number of requests received.

AWSP will continue their long-standing practice of pairing mentees with trained mentors and providing professional learning supports.

Why Mentoring Matters

• The principalship is more demanding than ever. Principals are creating the culture, systems, and instructional conditions necessary for all children to achieve at high levels in an economic and social context that is complex, challenging and fraught with inequity for children and families.

Mentoring can support the development of new school administrators as instructional leaders and increase principal and assistant principal retention, contributing to greater stability in school reform efforts over time. 

Resources

“Since 2003 NAESP has worked with close to 2,000 mentors across the country as well as globally, to engage highly-skilled and highly-trained mentors in leveraging their experience and expertise to develop new leaders.”

NAESP’s Center for New Principals
NAESP’s center for new K–8 principals provides tips, best practices, webinars and articles organized around the themes of leadership growth and achievement; student growth and achievement; school planning and progress; school culture; instructional leadership; and stakeholder support and engagement. They also provide a Principal Help Line.

While tied to their state licensure requirements, this resource site does include many downloadable documents that can be used as-is or adapted to other contexts.

Churn: The High Cost of Principal Turnover
Twenty-five thousand (one quarter) of the country’s principals leave their schools each year, adversely affecting millions of children’s lives. This report challenges the myth that developing a strong principal pipeline is where America should be focused.

If You Listen, We Will Stay: Why Teachers of Color Leave and How to Disrupt Teacher Turnover
This report comprises authentic narratives of teachers of color and successful school leaders. For this report, researchers conducted focus groups with teachers who identify as Black or Latino who talked about their experiences in the workforce and what schools, districts, and states could do to keep them in the field. Researchers also conducted case studies in schools and districts that were selected for their intentionality around retaining teachers of color.

Taking Stock of Principal Pipelines: What Public School Districts Report Doing and What They Want to Do to Improve School Leadership
The Wallace Foundation commissioned the RAND Corporation to interview district leaders across the country in fall 2019 to broaden understanding about the prevalence of and interest in activities related to principal preparation, hiring, support, and evaluation (referred to as pipeline activities). This report presents findings from an interview effort conducted between October and December 2019 to provide a baseline description of principal pipeline activities in districts across the country. It builds on a multiyear evaluation of principal pipelines as described in Principal Pipelines: A Feasible, Affordable and Effective Way for Districts to Improve Schools.