AASA's Consortium Connects Mentors and Mentees

Recognizing that women pursuing leadership roles face particular challenges, AASA launched its Women in School Leadership initiative two years ago, bolstered by a $450,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The initiative’s most distinctive facet combines mentoring and coaching with an online digital learning platform, EduPlanet21. The Women’s Leadership Consortium brings together women leaders from the education and business worlds to work with female educators who are eager to move into the superintendency of local school systems.

The association received 100 applicants for the 20 mentee slots with each of the 10 mentors assigned to work with two mentees. The pairings were matched by areas of expertise and interest, with some geographic considerations as well. Accordingly, AASA named the initiative “More than a Power Lunch: Building Networks to Support and Advance Women in School Leadership.”

Monthly Check-ins

The scale of the program means that “the goals are specific” to each mentor and mentee pairing, says Vera Turner, a project manager at AASA. Abington, Pa.’s superintendent Amy Sichel, a coach in the program, calls it “a two-way street.”

In her suburban Philadelphia district, Sichel has been putting in place a new K-6 language arts program so she’s tapped into the curricular experiences of her mentees to help her make some decisions.

The expectation is that the mentor will commit at least two hours each month to coaching each of her assigned mentees with the latter receiving assignments on realistic projects. Through EduPlanet21, the mentors and mentees can have ongoing, protected conversations about issues that arise, from budgeting and personnel matters to instructional issues and community relations.

“Using EduPlanet21, Skype, Zoom and other conferencing services, mentors can lead collaborative mentoring sessions, share their networks with their mentees and effectively mentor women in different locations across the country,” says Turner. “We’re building networks to support and advance women. Technology allows us to bring them together.

Corporate Aspects

MaryAnn Jobe, AASA’s director of leadership development, says the association’s program differs from others in its use of national thought leaders from education and business. She hopes the business leaders will encourage the aspiring superintendents to think about succession planning and envisioning long-term career goals, which are common in the corporate world but less so in K-12 education.

The mentors are superintendents in districts such as Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., Berkeley Heights, N.J., and Paramount, Calif. Those coming from the business side include the general counsel for the New York State Council of School Superintendents, a consultant with the executive search firm Hazard Young & Attea and the vice president of education policy with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Besides the work done remotely, the consortium participants gathered in person at a strand of sessions at AASA’s National Conference on Education in March. There’s an expectation that the mentors and mentees will contribute what they’ve learned to the final report about the project that will be provided to the Gates Foundation.

Connecting Candidates

Recognizing there is keen competition for the top leadership jobs, the idea is that mentors will share their networks with the mentees to expand opportunities.

Although the Gates Foundation grant ends in October, Jobe says “we’ll still follow up if mentees get positions.” Certainly, the mentors who’ve already formed relationships with their mentees have no intention of ending these connections.

“I see this as a long-term relationship,” says Sichel. “When I get off the phone, I feel as rejuvenated as they do.”