Mentoring Teachers Toward Excellence: Supporting and Developing Highly Qualified Teachers

Every year, more than 15,000 teachers vie for the chance to become certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Although the process is voluntary, National Board Certification is a widely recognized mark of distinction and is increasingly tied to leadership opportunities for teachers, salary increases, and improved student learning in classrooms. Mentors provide supportive services for teachers during their candidacy, offering strategies for standards-based analysis of practice, constructive criticism, advice, and moral support. These mentor groups have grown from informal groups to organized networks of expert teachers in every region of the country. Mentoring Teachers Toward Excellence is the first book to document the common challenges facing these "support providers," presenting a variety of brief cases of typical mentoring dilemmas in both one-on-one and group settings.

Judith H. Shulman is director of the Institute for Case Development and the National Board Support Network at WestEd, where she conducts professional development and technical assistance that facilitate quality teacher instruction.

Mistilina Sato, a former teacher, is an assistant professor of teacher development and science education at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and former director of the National Board Resource Center at Stanford University.