Dwight Elementary School, in the south end of Hartford, Connecticut, was one of the district's lowest-performing for several years, and had been through six different principals in the three years before I arrived. The lack of consistent leadership demoralized teachers, resulting in low expectations for them, and even lower expectations for students. Some teachers blamed students for the school's poor performance, and discipline problems abounded. Data-driven instruction was non-existent.

One of my first actions was to call a staff meeting explicitly to shift accountability to the teachers for the school's culture, climate and results. I told them, in no uncertain terms, turning our school around would be hard work. I stated bluntly, "If you're not with me, there are twenty-five other schools in this district."

I put research-based instructional strategies and grade-level benchmarks in place:

• We followed Learning Themes to help us teach to the state standards, using a consistent instructional approach;
• We used Living Themes to create a positive academic environment;
• We instituted grade-level benchmarks by semester for reading, math and writing.

This approach wasn't radical, but it was revolutionary for Dwight.

Our revolution, I believed, required my complete involvement. The effort consumed me. I was working seventy-hour weeks, often late into the night and over weekends. By the end of my first year, I wondered seriously whether I would be able to stay the course.

Then, in 2003, I was asked by my supervisor to attend The Breakthrough Coach's (TBC) 2-Day Program to evaluate its usefulness for the rest of the district's principals. The insights I gained there completely changed my approach to my job:

1. I needed to stop behaving as the school's head technician and start acting as the school's Lead Executive; I had been doing everything myself, from writing my own memos, to filing, to scheduling and running every meeting, even though I had staff with the expertise to do these things for me;
2. I thought of my office as a second home, rather than as a place to work and then leave. I spent far too much time there. The result - I was not nearly as effective or efficient as I could be;
3. The time I did spend in classrooms observing instruction was neither systematic nor strategic. As a result, I was not providing targeted professional development, and I was compromising my credibility with my staff. I was setting high expectations, but my staff needed to see me in classrooms regularly, monitoring instruction and providing feedback.

I returned from my TBC experience and made some immediate changes:

• I completely re-configured my office according to TBC guidelines;
• I used TBC's Management Methodology^™ to empower my secretary, enabling me to focus on my priority - instructional leadership;
• I was able to be out in classrooms 2-3 days a week to observe instruction, support my teachers, get to know the students, and still maintain a 40-hour work week.

As I began to spend more time out in the building, my collaborative relationships with teachers grew. My front office staff felt empowered and we were able to institute a shared leadership model for all. Several of Dwight's teachers are going through administrative training or have taken on leadership roles because they saw how TBC's Management Methodology^™ enabled me to be a successful principal and still have a personal life.

The real success story, however, is the dramatic improvement in our school's student achievement:

• Dwight has moved from #24 to #1 in the district for elementary performance, with reading scores up 300%, and writing and math up 100% since 2000;
• Dwight was named a national Blue Ribbon School in 2005, and won the 2004-05 State Vanguard Award;
• PTA membership - a significant barometer of parental involvement - grew from 3 members to 80.

My expectations were high before I went through TBC's program, but I believe that it was my TBC experience that enabled me to lead my staff and students, not only to meet those expectations, but far exceed them.