The Pygmalion Principal

About the Book

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 year’s 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 can’t 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.

About the Author

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.