Mentorship Is a Leadership Strategy

How Schools Can Retain Talent, Strengthen Instruction, and Build Culture

Too often, mentorship is treated as a new teacher onboarding tactic or a checkbox in professional development plans. But for school and district leaders focused on instructional quality, teacher retention, and leadership development, mentorship is a critical tool hiding in plain sight.

In a recent conversation hosted by Nancy Livingston, CEO of the National Summer School Initiative, educators Lizzie Eisen and Sean Healy, both former principals and current mentor teachers, shared what mentorship has meant in their careers, and what it could look like if school systems prioritized it.

Their reflections reveal a clear message for district leaders: mentorship isn’t about adding more processes, resources, or people. It’s about using what you already have more intentionally to grow people, improve instruction, and stabilize your system.

Staffing Stability Depends on More Than Hiring

Districts are pouring resources into teacher recruitment, but without strategies to retain and grow new talent, they’re stuck in a cycle of turnover. Mentorship, when done well, helps break that cycle.

Early in their careers, both Lizzie and Sean recalled relying on informal mentors, veteran teachers down the hall who shared advice, modeled strong relationships with students, and offered practical knowledge that no manual or orientation could provide.

“They helped me understand the school ecosystem—who to go to, how to ask for help, what mattered in the building,” Sean recalled.

Later, both educators experienced formal mentorship models that embedded daily coaching into their teaching practice. These relationships weren’t about compliance—they were about investment.

“Just saying, ‘I see your potential and I want to develop you’—that goes a long way,” Lizzie said.

When districts structure time and space for mentorship within the school day, not on top of it, they signal that staying and growing in the profession is possible.

Instructional Improvement Needs Embedded, Daily Development

Most professional development happens in short bursts; early release days, summer sessions, or formal observations. But teachers don’t improve in isolation or on a fixed schedule. They improve in community, over time, through observation, reflection, and feedback. That’s where mentorship makes a difference.

“Mentors were in my classroom every day,” Sean said. “They modeled, they debriefed, and they pushed me to grow.”

For school leaders trying to raise the floor and the ceiling on instructional practice, mentorship offers a pathway to both. It allows new teachers to internalize what quality looks like, not in theory, but in the classroom next door. And it provides experienced teachers with the opportunity to reflect, refine, and lead.

Mentorship also supports relational skill-building that improves student culture and engagement, which is something often left out of PD agendas.

“It wasn’t just ‘here’s how to run guided practice,’” Lizzie noted. “It was ‘here’s how to build relationships with kids in real time.’ That mattered.”

Teacher Leadership Pipelines Don’t Build Themselves

Every district wants to develop internal leadership. But many overlook one of the clearest pathways to do so: mentorship.

Serving as a mentor gives high-performing teachers the chance to grow their skills in coaching, communication, and leadership, whether or not they’re on a formal path to administration. “Mentorship was how I figured out I even wanted to be a school leader,” Sean shared.

Districts that treat mentorship as part of their leadership pipeline strategy, not just a peer support model, see benefits on both sides:

• Novice teachers grow faster with access to strong models.

• Mentors develop confidence and clarity in their instructional leadership.

• Leaders can identify future assistant principals or instructional coaches before vacancies arise.

But leaders should be intentional: mentor selection shouldn’t be based on proximity or seniority alone. Capacity, desire, and alignment matter.

“Sometimes we only match by grade level or subject,” Lizzie said. “But we also need to ask: Does this person want to mentor? Do they have the time, the disposition, and the support?”

Avoid the Bureaucracy Trap: Keep Mentorship Human, Not Heavy

Mentorship programs often fall apart when they become over-engineered, buried in rubrics, paperwork, and new meeting structures that overwhelm already busy teams.

What works? Using what already exists.

“You don’t need a new rubric,” Lizzie emphasized. “You don’t need a new meeting. Just bring people into the structures you already have.”

For example:

• Use existing professional learning communities (PLCs) or data meetings for mentorship check-ins.

• Intentionally place new teachers near veteran staff.

• Give mentors and mentees autonomy, with clear shared goals, rather than prescriptive agendas.

Leaders should resist the urge to fully script the process. Instead, they can set the vision, improve instruction, build capacity, retain talent, and let the details grow from the culture of the building.

“Be clear about what you want to be true at the end of the year,” Sean said. “Then trust teachers to figure out how to get there.”

Mentorship Is a Leadership Decision

When districts treat mentorship as a support function rather than a strategic lever, they miss what it really offers: a path toward better instruction, stronger culture, and a more stable, sustainable workforce.

At the National Summer School Initiative, this isn’t theoretical. It’s core to how the model works. Mentor teachers at NSSI are more than content experts—they’re embedded partners. They work side-by-side with partner teachers as a team, sharing best practices, modeling instruction, and putting high-quality resources directly into teachers’ hands.

“We don’t call them coaches on purpose,” Nancy explained. “It’s not about evaluation—it’s about collaboration.”

It’s a model that reflects what many district leaders are trying to build year-round: schools where excellent teaching is visible, supported, and grounded in relationships. A culture where great teachers aren’t just retained—but empowered to lead.

The leaders who get mentorship right won’t just keep teachers in the building. They’ll build systems that grow them.

Want to explore how NSSI could support your goals? Reach out to our team for a conversation.

Note: These insights were derived from a LinkedIn Live event hosted by Nancy Livingston, and featuring Lizzie Eisen and Sean Healey.