Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies
ZHCES Seminar Series
Peer Assistance and Review: Mentoring and Professional Accountability in U.S. School Districts
Prof. John Portz, Professor in Political Science
Northeastern University, USA
Bio: John Portz is a professor in political science at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, USA. His research and teaching interests focus on American politics and include education policy, federalism, and institutional leadership. His recent publication is Educational Accountability and American Federalism: Moving Beyond a Test-Based approach (Routledge, 2023). In spring 2024 he was a Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Scholar affiliated with the Centre for Canadian, U.S. and Latin American Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. In addition to his academic work, in the past he served as an elected member of his home community’s school board and city council.
Abstract: Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) is a mentor and evaluation program used in about 30 school districts in the U.S., including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Seattle. In this program, mentor teachers provide professional support for new teachers andtenured teachers with low instructional ratings. Guidelines for mentoring and evaluation consist of agreed-upon standards for excellent instruction. PAR mentors report their assessment of mentees to a PAR Board composed of teachers and administrators. The PAR Board, in turn, makes a recommendation on the future status of the mentee teacher.Labor-management collaboration and trust are key ingredients for this program. This becomes a form of professional accountability in which teachers hold others in their profession accountable for classroom instruction.
DATE: 31st January, 2025 (Friday)
TIME: 10.00am
Room No. 207
(All are Welcome)
