The purpose of this project was to establish criteria necessary to evaluate a mentoring policy for beginning principals. This study found that most mentor programs for first year school leaders lack expectations for selection and assignment of mentor principals.

This process began with a multi-faceted approach to researching best practices. Literature was located that covered both selection of mentors and matching of protégés with mentors. This research was not limited to the education realm. Mentoring in the worlds of medicine and corporate business also were reviewed. This research led to the creation of a list of essential criteria necessary in a mentor program. These criteria were then analyzed and evaluated by a panel of education leaders, including Gary Crow, author of Finding One's Way: How Mentoring Can Lead to Dynamic Leadership. Upon revising the criteria based on the panel's recommendations, the mentoring policies of all fifty states were then reviewed.

Fifteen states had a policy that could be evaluated with the criteria. The results were not encouraging. Most states do not have a required mentoring policy, and those that did had very little requirements to govern the process. It is recommended that these fifteen states, as well as the remaining thirty-five, all create a policy that addresses both the selection and matching criteria recommended in this policy analysis report. Specifically, selection should include minimum years of relevant experience, a sound record of success, and self-nomination. Also, in order to match a mentor with a protégé, geographic proximity and similar school background should be considered.

Recommendations based on the results were written for both state level and local school district audiences to build a stronger and more effective mentoring experience. In addition to these education-based audiences, recommendations also were given for non-educator mentoring with the hope that other occupations will benefit from this work as well.