The Denver Post - Bennet Plans Bill to Replicate Denver Principal Training Nationally

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By Jeremy P. Meyer

A bill to be introduced today by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet would replicate a principal-development program he established as superintendent of Denver Public Schools.

Bennet and his chief academic officer, Jaime Aquino, met daily with principals, started monthly principal institutes and even hosted summertime sessions.

The motive was to get the school leaders to share ideas and begin conversations.

"That had a huge effect in our ability to change the culture and support principals in their work and get them working collaboratively," Bennet said.

Bennet today will introduce the Lead Act -- a bill that would take the principal institute idea national -- providing federal funds to train and develop experienced principals to lead school turnaround efforts across the country.

The bill would allow the nation's best principals to get training and support.

Specifically, it calls for federal funds to establish school leadership academies, create an online catalog of professional development materials and establish leadership centers to train and support principals and mentors to lead school turnarounds.

The money would be pulled from existing federal Title II funds that pay for teacher and principal training, Bennet said.

"We know there are schools in the country that are chronically underperforming and need to be turned around, but we haven't developed the capacity to do the kind of turnarounds that are needed," Bennet said.

Betsy Dumph, a former principal who worked as a mentor in Westminster, said the bill would create systems that are needed for school leaders who are being asked to do more with less.

"It's a very difficult job, and new principals are being asked to come into a school and turn it around," she said. "It's almost a job that if one person is trying to do it themselves . . . it just becomes that much more impossible."

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