Te Ara Teitei | Summit InstituteFor North American superintendents, principals and vice principals · 12 weeks · Fully online
Multiply your productivity and maximize your impact
Lead AI with confidence.
The AI Powered Principal Program is for superintendents, principals and vice principals. It shows you how to use AI in your own daily work, then how to lead its use across your school or district, within your state's or province's rules. It's led by Dr. Craig Hansen, who has trained over 1,000 principals, and built on what they told him makes the biggest difference in a school leader's role.
Enrollment closes Friday, December 4, 2026, at 11:59 pm ET. The program starts Wednesday, December 9.
Guest speakers
Learn from guest experts
Guest speakers join Dr. Craig Hansen to lead selected modules.
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Dr. Trent Grundmeyer
CEO, Grundmeyer Leader Services
Director of Education Leadership Program, Buena Vista UniversityModule 2 · Wednesday, Jan 6
Utilizing AI in hiring
Sound familiar?
You're expected to lead on AI while the job keeps growing
- The inbox never emptiesEmail, reports and paperwork fill the evenings that should be yours.
- Your board is asking about AIBoard members, families and staff want to know your plan.
- Teachers are already using itSome with real skill, some without guidance, and you need to know what good looks like.
- Privacy is on the lineFERPA, COPPA and your state's student-privacy law all apply, and the tools change every month.
This program gives you the skills to use AI well yourself and the confidence to lead it across your school or district.
Built for school and district leaders in North America
A program for superintendents, principals and vice principals
Dr. Craig Hansen has trained over 1,000 principals to use AI. This program is built on their feedback about what makes the biggest difference in a school leader's role.
It's open to superintendents, principals, and assistant, associate, deputy and vice principals. There are no whole-staff sessions and no generic teacher training. Every week starts with your own work as a leader, then moves to the classroom practice you lead.
You apply everything inside your own school or district, so the program responds to you. If a concept scheduled for later would help you now, you can get it now.
Whatever your starting point, from first prompts to building your own AI assistants, you'll leave with more than you came in with.
District leaders
Superintendents
Use AI in your own work, then lead it across your district: board reporting, district AI guidance and support for the principals you lead.
School leaders
Principals
Use AI in your own work, then lead it across your school: staff guidance, school improvement planning and reporting to your board and families.
School leaders
Vice principals
Including assistant, associate and deputy principals. Use AI in the areas you carry, from scheduling and staff growth to student services and the classroom practice you coach.
How each week works
"How do I use this, and how do I lead it?"
Every module answers that question in four steps.
Lead it yourself
Use AI in your own workflow first, so you lead by example.
Lead it in classrooms
See what good teacher practice looks like and how to coach it.
Your artifact
Leave each module with a practical tool you keep and use in your school.
Your Monday move
One specific action to take before the next meeting.
Weekly shout-outs
Each week, participants celebrate their wins, time saved and quality improved in the Skool community & groups. You choose what to share. At the end of the program, AI turns your shout-outs into your own Impact Scorecard to share with colleagues, your board and your staff.
Three forms of support
You won't be learning alone
Most AI training is a one-off session. This program surrounds you with support for twelve weeks.
Weekly group meetings
Live online every Wednesday at 4:30 pm ET, recorded, with a hand-out and ready-to-use prompts. A Q&A digest and an AI update follow each meeting.
The Skool community & groups
Share ideas, ask questions, post resources and celebrate wins. Peers answer, the support team responds and Craig provides support.
One-on-one support
Apply the learning to your own school or district, your state's requirements and your personal development plan.
Digital Leadership Readiness Profiler™
Know exactly where you stand as a digital leader
It isn't a tech quiz or a personality test. It's a 36-item self-assessment across the six areas that matter most for leading an AI-enabled school or district.
- Digital Mindset
- Digital Literacy
- Leading Digital Change
- AI Leadership
- Behavioral Leadership
- Digital Execution
What you get
- A snapshot of your strengths and priorities
- A 90-day personal development plan, built from your results and your state's requirements
- One-on-one support to put your plan into action
When you use it
- Week 1: complete the Profiler and set your baseline
- Week 12: review your results and see how far your leadership has shifted
The 12-week journey
From your first baseline to your Impact Scorecard
- Week 1Welcome, Profiler, AI readiness snapshot and baseline
- Week 2AI foundations: prompting well, using AI safely, and planning and curriculum design
- Week 3Utilizing AI in hiring, with guest speaker Dr. Trent Grundmeyer
- Week 4Resource creation
- Week 5Responsive teaching and school culture
- Week 6Differentiation and personalization
- Week 7Inclusion, accessibility and special education
- Week 8Assessment and feedback
- Week 9Family, culture and community
- Week 10Students and AI: literacy, critical thinking and agency
- Week 11Workload, workflows and professional growth
- Week 12Review, Impact Scorecard and celebration
Three leadership themes
All included. You choose where to focus.
Most school and district leaders carry responsibilities from all three, so every theme is open to you.
Governance, strategy and community
Board reporting, school and district improvement planning, and leading digital change across your school or district.
Operations, instruction and staff
Scheduling, staff evaluation and growth, professional learning and data, with you making the final call.
Special education and student services
IEP, 504, MTSS and EL work, with clear safeguards: AI never decides eligibility, placement or diagnosis.
What you leave with
Real tools and real change, not quizzes
- Time back in your weekWorkflows that cut administration, reporting and routine tasks.
- Ten practical artifactsFrom a staff AI guidance sheet to your school or district AI implementation plan.
- Your Impact ScorecardTime saved, quality improved and time reinvested, built from your weekly shout-outs.
- Board-ready deliverablesSupport to brief your school board, site council or district on AI, when you need to.
- Your Profiler results and readiness snapshotWhere you and your school or district started, and how far you've come.
- Your own AI assistantsCustom GPTs, skills and automations built for the way you work.
- A 90-day personal development planBuilt from the Digital Leadership Readiness Profiler™ and your state's requirements.
- A connected networkSuperintendents, principals, vice principals and AI-in-education leaders you can learn from.
Built for your state's rules
AI that works within the rules you work under
You apply everything within your own state's:
- student-privacy law, along with FERPA and COPPA
- academic standards
- educator evaluation framework
- district policy and approved tools
Leading a school or district in Canada? You're welcome. The program is built on US frameworks, and you apply each module within your own province's or territory's privacy law, curriculum and school board policy.
Humans keep the judgment. Grades, evaluations, discipline, eligibility and safeguarding stay with people.
Funding
Funding may already be in your budget
In July 2025, the US Department of Education issued guidance saying districts may use existing federal funds to support AI in education, including training educators. Title II-A professional learning funds can support principals and other school leaders.
Ask your district's federal programs office whether the AI Powered Principal Program qualifies.
Eligibility depends on your district and program rules. Your federal programs office makes the final decision.
Led by Dr. Craig Hansen
Craig has trained over 1,000 principals to use AI in their work, and their feedback on what makes the biggest difference for school leaders shaped this program. He leads the program with an international team of experts who join as participants' needs require.
Ready when you are
Multiply your productivity and maximize your impact
Lead AI with confidence.
Twelve weeks. Live weekly support, a community of superintendents, principals and vice principals, and one-on-one help, all built around your school or district and your state's rules.
Enrollment closes Friday, December 4, 2026, at 11:59 pm ET.
Questions? Email Craig at craig@summitinstitute.ac.nz
Need your district on board?
Copy this note and send it to your superintendent, school board or federal programs office.
What school leaders say
In their own words
Principals and other school leaders, after Dr. Craig Hansen's AI training sessions. Selected from 242 pieces of feedback, shown as written; a few are shortened.
Using Gemini to help with planning from my IEP's, using data to inform our board, creating story books for learning stories. I'm going to save 10 hours per week due to my learning today.
I came in today thinking I was confident in what my school and I knew about AI, but I was extremely impressed and ecstatic about my learning and what I can take away to the other leaders from my school.
I have so many new tools that I can add to my toolbox, this has been a great investment of my time and I can't wait to share it with as many as I can.
Love how practical this was. Best AI workshop I've been to.
Thank you, Craig! It was such a relaxed and informative session with a great feel. Lots to think about, learn and empower my staff with. Let's make learning equitable together!
This was great, I am always wanting to find ways to use my time more effectively, less time on paperwork, more time with the students learning.
Best PD I have had for some time.
I learnt how to use AI in a more responsible way, creating plans and reports, saving time and looking after our wellbeing.
I enjoyed the pace of delivery and provision of valuable tools that will enable all of us to work with more ease and flow in our roles. Such value and a high-level presentation – thank you for unlocking this box.
Great session. I'm going to save 3 hours per week due to my learning today.
The best compliment I can give is that I learned the whole time and was engaged from the beginning to end. Well worth doing. Thank you.
The whole session was very valuable. So many awesome tools and uses for AI. I cannot wait to take it back to the staff.
It was really fantastic, quick and practical which I really enjoyed.
This was informative, and I can immediately think of other leaders in my school and my DP network who would be keen to attend a session.
Your content was so well chosen, timely and suited to my needs. I hope it sticks in my brain, I already thinking of new ways I can make use of this. I will be playing and learning in the days and weeks to come.
Very valuable and worthwhile use of my time.
Great session, really useful with lots to put into immediate practice – Thank you!!
Thank you! Loved the pace and learning things I can take back to school to work on straight away!
The speed was great – especially for me as a beginner in this field, thank you.
On-time learning. Great practical session. Loved Craig's patience and expertise. … We have the ability as school leaders but are extremely time-poor.
Absolutely grew my appreciation and knowledge of AI.
There is a need to be continually updated on the tech space for teaching and learning. This is the space and person to take you there!
A great session. Thanks so much. Everything shared in a practical way.
Amazing help, and great knowledge. Thank you heaps. This will be incredibly helpful for my teachers.
I am SO glad that I came today. I have learnt SO MUCH in a short time.