Putting the PRO in Protege: A Guide to Mentoring in Head Start and Early Head Start.

摘要

Promoting continuous quality improvement and building local capacity are primary goals of Head Start and Early Head Start. Developing teacher and home visitor capacity is key to promoting high-quality educational services and to improving child outcomes. An excellent way to enhance teacher capacity and to promote developmentally appropriate practice is through mentoring. The individualized nature of mentoring makes it a particularly valuable approach for all teachers and home visitors, whether they are new to the profession or have years of experience. Mentoring provides a model of on-the-job training, guidance, and apprenticeship that is well suited to staff in Head Start and Early Head Start. The purpose of this publication is to provide a hands-on mentoring guide for grantee and delegate agencies and their partners in early childhood education. It discusses the nature of the mentoring relationship and provides a rationale for why mentoring is appropriate for teachers, teaching teams, and home visitors in Head Start and Early Head Start programs. The guide is designed to help managers, supervisors, and mentors plan, implement, and evaluate mentoring. It can also help agencies make decisions about integrating mentoring with their organizational structures, resources, and needs.