Va. Principal Cadre Aims to Fix Schools.

Borrowing a strategy from the corporate world, Virginia plans to form an elite cadre of principals armed with the skills needed to jump-start improvement in low-performing schools. In what's being pitched as a national model, state officials last week picked the University of Virginia to run a training program that will let an experienced school leader earn a credential as a "turnaround specialist." Continuing support for the principals will come from a group called School Turnaround, an initiative of the Rensselaerville Institute, a nonprofit group based in Rensselaerville, New York, that works with human-service organizations to do strategic planning aimed at improving performance.