A. The purpose of the teacher mentorship program is to provide beginning teachers with an effective transition into the teaching field, to build on their initial preparation and to ensure their success in teaching; to improve the achievement of students; and to retain capable teachers in the classroom and to remove teachers who show little promise of success.

B. The department shall develop a framework for a teacher mentorship program for all first-year teachers. The program shall provide mentorship services by level two or level three mentors to the first-year teacher for the full school year. If sufficient mentorship funds are available, the department may provide funding for mentorship services that extend beyond the first year if the local superintendent or charter school administrator certifies to the secretary that further formal mentorship of a beginning teacher will accomplish the purposes of Subsection A of this section; provided that the state shall not pay for more than three years' mentorship for any beginning teacher.

C. The department shall work with licensed school employees, representatives from teacher preparation programs and the higher education department to establish the framework.

D. The framework shall include:

(1) individual support and assistance for each beginning teacher from a designated mentor;

(2) structured training for mentors;

(3) an ongoing, formative evaluation that is used for the improvement of teaching practice;

(4) procedures for a summative evaluation of beginning teachers' performance during at least the first three years of teaching, including annual assessment of suitability for license renewal, and for final assessment of beginning teachers seeking level two licensure;

(5) support from local school boards, school administrators and other school district personnel; and

(6) regular review and evaluation of the teacher mentorship program.

E. The department shall:

(1) require submission and approval of each school district's teacher mentorship program;

(2) provide technical assistance to school districts that do not have a well-developed teacher mentorship program in place;

(3) encourage school districts to collaborate with teacher preparation program administrators at institutions of higher education, career educators, educational organizations, regional service centers and other state and community leaders in the teacher mentorship program; and

(4) distribute no less than fifty percent of available funds for mentorship programs to school districts on or before September 15 of each fiscal year according to the estimated number of teachers eligible to participate in a mentorship program on the fortieth day of the school year and, on or before January 15 of each fiscal year, distribute the balance of the available funds based on the actual number of eligible teachers participating in a mentorship program on the fortieth day of the school year, adjusted for any over- or under-estimation made in the first allocation.

F. The department shall require that teacher preparation programs collaborate with colleges of arts and sciences and high schools to develop a model to provide mentorship services with structured supervision and feedback to each of their graduates who have obtained a teaching position in a public high school, including charter schools; develop cost estimates; and provide recommendations to the legislative education study committee by November 1, 2007. The model shall provide for the following:

(1) mentorship services for the first year as a level one teacher to each of their graduates who has obtained a teaching position in any New Mexico public high school, including charter schools; provided that teacher preparation programs may enter into contracts or memoranda of agreement with each other or with level three teachers in providing services to their students;

(2) an annual report to the department of the number of teachers that have completed each of their programs the previous spring or summer and have been hired by public high schools, including charter schools, for the following school year; and

(3) an annual report providing a description of the mentorship services that will be provided to each of their teachers, including the name of the teacher, the grade level the teacher has been hired to teach and the name of the school and district where the teacher has been hired.

History: 1978 Comp., § 22-10A-9, enacted by Laws 2003, ch. 153, § 40; 2005, ch. 315, § 6; 2005, ch. 316, § 3; 2007, ch. 264, § 3; 2009, ch. 119, § 1; 2010, ch. 113, § 2.

Cross references. — For references to the former commission on higher education, see 9-25-4.1 NMSA 1978.

For the public education department, see 9-24-4 NMSA 1978.

The 2010 amendment, effective May 19, 2010, in the catchline, after "program for", deleted "level one" and added "beginning"; in Subsection B, in the first sentence, after "program for all", deleted "level one" and added "first-year" and added the second and third sentences; and in Subsection E(4), after "estimated number of", changed "beginning teachers on the fortieth day" to "teachers eligible to participate in a mentorship program on the fortieth day" and after "actual number of", changed "beginning teachers on the fortieth day" to "eligible teachers participating in a mentorship program on the fortieth day".

The 2009 amendment, effective June 19, 2009, in Paragraph (4) of Subsection E, after "distribute", added "no less than fifty percent of"; after "school district", deleted "annually on a per-teacher basis" and added "on or before September 15 of each fiscal year"; after "according to the", added "estimated"; and after "school year", added the remainder of the sentence.

The 2007 amendment, effective June 15, 2007, added Paragraph (4) of Subsection D and Subsection E.

The 2005 amendment, effective April 7, 2005, provided in Subsection C(4) that the framework shall include evaluation during at least the first three years of teaching.