The Pygmalion Principal: The Impact of High Expectations on Student and Staff Achievement

By Patricia J. Dignan

Stressing the importance of high expectations is not enough to close achievement gaps in schools nor is it enough to get everyone on the proverbial same page if few know what a building with high expectations would look like. Or if fewer yet know how to establish a climate demanding the best from everyone associated with the students in that building especially the students themselves.

One of the first practitioners in the country to recognize the powerful linkages between high expectations, student achievement, and exemplary staff performance these past forty years, Dr. Patricia J. Dignan provides timeless yet current strategies for turning ordinary and troubled schools into buildings with high expectations and exceptional successes through this years publication of The Pygmalion Principal.

This book delineates the how-tos involved in winning state and national awards for increased student performance, staff morale, and family/community buy-in at every level of schooling and in settings as diverse as bucolic country or impoverished urban areas, and even in the faces of those who claim it cant be done.

With humor and handy tips filling its pages, The Pygmalion

Principal is a must read for all who want to create or administer climates of high expectations while molding student and staff successes and carving out better futures for all who enter our k-12 school portals.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 20, 2006
• ISBN: 9781467099233

Patricia J. Dignan

Patricia J. Dignan is currently the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction in Milan, Michigan. Her career has spanned three decades and fifteen school systems. She has directed the Headstart program in two states, headed task forces on special education and gifted and talented programs, and has taught every level, from preschool to college. Certified in elementary, middle school, and high school teaching and administration, Dr. Dignan has a master''s degree in Effective Classroom Teaching and a doctorate in Administration and Supervision. She is currently completing her studies for a law degree.

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© 2007 Patricia J. Dignan, Ed.D.. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse

ISBN: 978-1-4259-0214-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-9923-3 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. The Pygmalion Principal in Theory

3. Improving School Climate through Pupil, Staff, and Community Involvement

4. Discipline That Works

5. Expectations for Student Performance

Conclusion

Appendixes

Suggested Readings

Author’s Page

For Ruth Schelkun, My Friend

Patrick Dignan, My Husband

and My Own Henry Higgins

--You see, she’ll be a pupil–and teaching would be impossi ble unless pupils were sacred....

–George Bernard Shaw

Pygmalion

Foreword

Pat Dignan became an elementary principal under the most trying of circumstances. She was the only female administrator out of twenty-six administrators in the district, and the superintendent who hired her told her that she would never make it past this first year, so do things your way.

And do things her way she did! The first school under her direction, Woodruff, went from a hotbed of staff tension and student violence to one of 500 cited nationally in Phi Delta Kappa’s Directory of Schools with Exemplary Discipline. Woodruff was also one of only 100 in the country to be listed in the Directory’s category for outstanding effectiveness.

Chapelle, Pat’s second school for only two years, moved from a high-stress environment to a most improved climate. And Ardis, Pat’s third school, saw a rise in MEAP scores over a span of three years–from 52 percent of students in the top quartile for reading to 83 percent! Ardis was named one of the top twenty elementary schools in Michigan as a result.

Of course, these results didn’t just happen. Nor did they come without struggle and pain. As Pat tried to analyze what single factor made the most significant difference for kids and families in her schools, she realized that raising expectations raised all other indicators. Thus, her abiding belief in the Pygmalion principle and principal. Like the original sculptor and the screen version, Henry Higgins, Pat saw dramatic transformations in the kids whose lives she touched.

Once I became involved at the doctorate level, I felt compelled to examine the role of expectations on student and staff achievement, she said. I also began systematic programs to raise standards. A few examples of these programs follow in the chapters of this book.

As can be expected by all principals who seek to bring change to common or crippled schools, the stress Pat was made to feel in her first principalship was disproportionate to the stress she caused. Her first concern, of course, was the students and the communities from which they came. It was difficult to educate demoralized–let alone absent–kids. It was also difficult to bring changes to staffs whose tenure in a particular building was longer than the principal’s. But Pat’s record is proof in itself that changes could be made–indeed, miracles wrought. And the good teachers became even better in the process.

This book attempts to establish the groundwork and the theory for bringing vast but practical improvements to the profession of school administration, teaching, and learning. It also outlines several ways to enhance educational experiences for all students while involving many aspects of their school’s community.

I have had the good fortune to know Pat as an exceptional person and educator whose inspirational and visionary presence is matched only by her tireless work ethic. She views problems as opportunities for creativity rather than excuses for apathy. Her words are motivated by her desire to share the concepts, ideas, and practices so successfully implemented in her schools–often with children and teachers who felt overwhelmed. Pat’s successful experiences as a teacher and administrator at all levels of schooling with many difficult-to-reach youth inspires hope that school practices that blend dignity, caring, and high expectations work!

Allen Mendler, Ph.D.

Author of Discipline with Dignity

Acknowledgments

This book would not be a documentary to the human spirit if it weren’t for hundreds of talented, committed teachers who helped me carve a path of promise in the schools I’ve administered. The old guard at Woodruff supported me even though (at the time I became principal) they were almost twice as old and definitely ten times as wise. And the somewhat apprehensive staff at Chapelle when I arrived never quit striving to make that school a wonderful place for students. And although my Ardis teachers were the most challenging both because of their strong identification with tradition and their paradoxical openness to change; the bottom line in all my schools, I found, was whatever it takes, if it makes things better for kids, we’ll roll up our sleeves and do it!

The appendixes are examples of numerous collective and individual efforts: JoAnne Sheard and Tulani Smith on Health Fairs, Jovita Davis and Marilyn Bishop on the Fair of Natural Highs, and Megg Lewandowski on Chapelle’s Vehicle Day are just a few who contributed mightily. I also want to acknowledge five strong people who supported me in each of those schools: Barb Olson, Linda Baditoi, Marie Williams, Kamille Karlson, and Nancy Dugas. These secretaries and aides embodied the saying that for every successful executive there’s a woman behind the scenes making things go smoothly. And Tulani was simply frosting on the cake!

The credit on systematically raising expectations through ESP (Expectations for Student Performance) has to go to a corp of middle school and high school teachers in Milan who created and instituted the structure (and, at the middle school, still monitor its effectiveness). Rather than leave even one name out, I’d like to dedicate that section to all of my exceptional colleagues in Milan; a system that would be any administrator’s dream when it comes to staffs who are competent, committed, and willing to meet all the challenges public schools bring.

My family, of course, has always been a major source of strength. My husband, Patrick, took care of me while making our house a home where we all helped each other grow, especially our three children. He even attended classes for me while I was working on my doctorate at Michigan! He kept my spirits up by asking every night, during those first difficult years, Well, what did your teachers resist today?

John and Cassandra, my son and daughter, were great kids and now are wonderful young adults. I couldn’t have picked better ones had I gone shopping for them. They continue to inspire me daily and fill my cup to overflowing.

The memory of Jimmy, our last son–a very special addition who arrived late on the scene and lived just long enough to touch everybody with his magic–continues to keep me going when the going gets tough. He also confirmed in a personal way how very special disabled children are.

But all these acknowledgments would be lacking if I failed to mention Ruth Schelkun, a school consultant, colleague, and friend of mine who helped me keep my sanity and the vision of who I am and what the schools under my direction could become. She also kept me from doing something crazy about every six months.

Ruth and I presented the chapter Quality Circles Go to School in San Francisco, and she compiled most of the background. Before she died in October 1991, I promised her to someday write a book about our efforts.

So, Ruth, this one’s for you.

1. Introduction

This summer–the summer of 1992–is the first summer that I’ve had in twenty-eight years to actually take the time to reflect on the past. I’ve held four principalships spanning twenty years, and, because of the uniqueness of principaling, I’m finding more than my share of memories!

When I go back over my desk calendars of those twenty years, I chuckle all over again. I remember, for example, a third grader’s mom calling me to warn me that her son caught something and she didn’t know if he got it or gave it