Greg Johnston

Greg Johnston, the principal at Oakland Intermediate, heard about the crates from reading specialist Pam Wilson.
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Johnston was quick to point out that in the past two years his school has added about 1,000 new books to the crated ones.
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Johnston said the heavy emphasis on reading played a role in his students' achievements, and the crate ladies share in the credit.

Every week or so, Greg Johnston makes his rounds, toting a touch-screen laptop, on which he can summon all the necessary information on employees and customers.

But he's not looking for sales figures or profits.His currency is test scores.

Johnston is the principal at Oakland Intermediate School in Northwest Roanoke.His employees are teachers, his customers students.The laptop was bought with grant money.
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And where Johnston and his staff crunch the numbers and keep track of every shred of student data, Delp prefers to give teachers a little more leeway.
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Last year, Johnston became an advocate of a new instructional method known as the "eight-step process."
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And while on paper every city school has adopted the eight-step process, few principals have been so enthusiastic about it as Johnston, a man who likes to repeat: "What gets measured gets done."

"We bought into everything" about it, Johnston said.
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At 35 and 36 respectively, Johnston and Delp are among the city's youngest principals.
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To an adult, Johnston can sometimes come off as something of a bureaucrat, with his reliance on numbers and his full sentences.But to his students, he falls somewhere between the older brother and the beloved uncle who shows up on holidays with educational toys.

Delp's approach appears a little more laid-back.Her staff wears green or tie-dyed T-shirts, and she sometimes worries that her office is too messy.

Don't be fooled.When she arrived in 2004, she assumed what she calls a "no excuses approach to education."It's an approach that demanded that not only should the teachers be held accountable, but also the students and their parents.Suspensions spiked her first year.

At Oakland, where Johnston has been principal since 2003, students of different abilities get placed together in a single class.
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Over at Oakland, Johnston will meet with all of his school's 165 students twice this year for a pep talk.
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There's no way of getting around that, but that allows you to think differently because you're forced to," said Johnston.

His school's success has also turned it into the poster child for the administration's new eight-step process, bringing with it an unusual level of scrutiny.
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Johnston greeted the superintendents and turned back toward the school to lead another tour.