LEGISLATION & POLICY

MENTOR TEACHER PAY

Mentor teachers are assigned to provide support and assistance to beginning teachers. Beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, the State Board of Education began allotting funds for mentoring services to local school administrative units based on the highest number of employees in the preceding three school years who (i) are paid with State, federal, or local funds and (ii) are either teachers paid on the first or second steps of the teacher salary schedule or instructional support personnel paid on the first step of the instructional support personnel salary schedule. Each local school administrative unit determines the amount of compensation paid to school based teachers serving as mentors.

To qualify for mentor pay, a mentor must be:

1. assigned to a newly licensed teacher who has less than 6 months of teaching experience, or
2. assigned to a teacher in their second year of teaching and who qualified for a paid mentor during the previous year, or
3. assigned to a first year instructional staff member who has not previously been a teacher, or
4. assigned to a teacher in their second year who has one year or less of teaching experience out of state, in a private school, or in a charter school.

State-funded mentors are not provided for superintendents, associate superintendents, or assistant superintendents; principals, assistant principals or central office staff; or teachers with classroom teaching experience other than that identified above.

September 2008