(Rolling Prairie, IN) – The school principal at Rolling Prairie Elementary lived out every parent’s worst nightmare, while celebrating student learning.

David Burden took over at the school a couple of years ago. This year, he made a deal with students. For every one of them who met a growth goal on iReady standardized testing, Burden agreed to add an inch to a path of Lego blocks that he would walk across barefoot.

After 275 individual goals were met, Burden found himself facing about 23 feet of Legos spread out accross the middle of the gym floor. On Friday morning he took the walk, surrounded by a group of excited and high-achieving school kids. Their success means 1 out of every 3 students at the school grew more than one grade level in Math and/or ELA this year.

And Mr. Burden grew in pain tolerance.