Is This the Craziest Bet a Principal Has Ever Made to Reward Students for Good Test Scores?
This piece is a part of a series on that highlights the remarkable individuals, triumphs, success stories, and acts of kindness occurring in schools across America. Discover more inspiring profiles on our website at The74million.org/series/inspiring.
Principals often resort to making extravagant promises in order to inspire students to study diligently for their standardized tests. Sleeping on the school roof has become quite a popular method, and one particularly daring principal even allowed students to fasten her to the wall using duct tape.
However, a principal in New York has made a promise that will last a lifetime, symbolizing his students’ accomplishments.
Dave Hills, the principal of Waterfront Elementary School in Buffalo, vowed to get a tattoo if students from every grade level surpassed the district’s average scores on state tests. Surpass them they did, and now his left arm proudly displays a prominent lighthouse, which happens to be the school’s emblem.
Hills explains that the lighthouse represents the struggle to navigate treacherous waters and find a place of safety and calm. It symbolizes the dedication of both the staff and students in significantly improving their performance on critical exams, with their proficiency rates more than doubling.
"Previously, we had around 7 percent proficiency in both math and English-language arts. Now, we’ve reached about 16 percent proficiency. These gains were substantial enough to elevate us from a priority school to a school in good standing, making us the only school in the district to achieve this progress," Hills revealed in an interview with WIVB.
This bet encouraged teachers to thoroughly examine the data within their school, enabling them to pinpoint the areas and students that required the most assistance.
"I would witness students scrutinizing each question, and the teacher would ask, ‘How many more of you need to answer this correctly for Mr. Hills to get the tattoo?’ It motivated us to closely analyze the data and motivate the students," Hills mentioned to the station.
Hills admitted that he never believed he would actually have to get the tattoo. However, he now has a permanent reminder that anything is feasible when it comes to achieving success in the realm of education.
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