Middle Schools Of The Year: Let Them Lift Us Up: WINNER Hand Middle School/Columbia, S.C.

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Stiglbauer and her staff promoted diversity by encouraging all kids to join the school's sports teams, technology classes and arts electives. While all Hand's test scores have increased, those of black students have surged the most: 85% in the past five years. As test scores rose, families who had fled to private and parochial schools started returning. Then real estate agents began to drop mentions of Hand's achievements into their pitches about heated pools and tree-lined cul-de-sacs. Mary Lu Dalton, Hand's curriculum coordinator, switched her son from a Catholic school to Hand three years ago. "At St. Joseph's there was one black student in my child's whole school," says Dalton. "Here he's getting an education in different faiths and cultures. He's even been to two Bat Mitzvahs."

With the stream of wealthier parents came additional support. Parents chipped in to buy high-tops for students on the basketball team who couldn't afford them. Others banded together to raise $120,000 to build a new track.

Ironically, Hand's successes have spawned a string of new challenges. So many families have returned--or transferred in from other schools--that some classes have swelled to 32 students. Half of Hand's students take at least one class in a portable trailer. And because Hand's scores are soaring, it stands to lose two teachers allotted by the state to low-scoring schools.

A bigger challenge will come next fall. District officials are so impressed with Stiglbauer's performance that they've asked her to leave Hand to head a struggling Columbia high school. Stiglbauer, who lives three blocks from Hand and whose son will begin the sixth grade there next fall, has promised not to stray too far. "A long while ago," she says, "I forgot where I stopped and these students started."