Walk your talk. (District plus: tips and ideas for successful district leadership).

Parents tutor, beautify the school grounds, or eat lunch with students. And every teacher must believe that every child can learn.

These are a few examples of what helps Inwood Elementary School in Winter Haven, Fla., shine. While the Title I school in the Polk County School District has a high poverty rate, with 76 percent of its students receiving free or reduced lunch, it has continued for four years to get an A on its school report card from the state Department of Education.

And in a Terra Nova assessment, Inwood students recently scored above average of all Title I schools in all grade levels for both median scores and the percentage of proficient students.

Principal Sue Buckner says she doesn't do anything much different from most others in her place, but she's consistent.

Buckner says she makes her vision clear to prospective teachers that all children can learn. "I'm very adamant about attendance and teachers being here," she says.

"And you have to have discipline under control before children can learn," she says. "You've got to walk your talk and you have to do it consistently."

She also has parents, grandparents, step-parents, aunts, uncles and neighbors get involved. If parents are not tutoring students, they're eating lunch with them, picking up litter around the school, or sewing costumes for plays. "Parents need to feel comfortable and to see what goes on in the classroom," she says. "There's no 24-hour notice" to walk into class.