Denver, CO – Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today visited classrooms at Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment and met with participants in the Denver Teacher Residency Program (DTR) in an effort to highlight the nation’s first district-based teacher residency program and celebrate the inclusion of key elements of his Presidential Teacher Corps (PTC) proposal in the President’s budget.
Bennet talked with students and teachers in classrooms where DTR residents work alongside mentor teachers to learn the most effective ways to reach their students. After the classroom visits, Bennet met with DTR residents and mentor teachers to talk about the program and how it can serve as a model to recruit and prepare a new generation of talented teachers by providing an alternative pathway into the profession.
“Nothing makes a greater difference to student learning than great teaching,” Bennet said. “That is why we need to recognize and support programs like the Denver Teacher Residency Program that prepare talented teachers to go into the classrooms where they are needed most. With over 1 million teachers expected to retire in the coming years, we need new and innovative ways to recruit, train and inspire a new corps of teacher to provide our kids with a quality, competitive education.”
Montclair, a DPS Innovation School, is a host school site for the Denver Teacher Residency Program, which provides aspiring teachers with another pathway into the profession and prepares them to meet the needs of their students. Bennet’s Presidential Teacher Corps could support successful initiatives like the DTR. Bennet’s PTC is part of his push to help recruit a new generation of talented teachers to the profession.
Bennet’s visit to Montclair is an effort to inform conversations about how best to improve public education and build consensus for reforms that will help revitalize our schools and help prepare kids for success in college and the 21st century economy. Bennet plans to use the events to inform conversations about how best to improve public education and to build consensus for reforms that will help revitalize our schools and prepare kids for success.
The visits are modeled after the approach Bennet took as superintendent of Denver Public Schools, where he scheduled daily meetings with teachers and principals, and members of the community—conversations that helped build consensus and support for the positive reforms he implemented at the district. Bennet believes that the best ideas come from outside of Washington and wants to bring the voices, ideas and aspirations of teachers, principals, parents and students to the U.S. Senate.