This work is an analysis of the alignment between schools associated with an Indiana Assistant Principal of the Year, as selected by the Indiana Association of School Principals, and increases in academic performance of those schools on state mandated "high stakes" academic tests. The focus was on school improvement using annual school report card data. Using a design looking for association and a Chi Square analysis, a significant positive correlation was identified. The results shed some light on the potential excellent practices of assistant-principals and student academic achievement gains. Although a positive correlation was found, the results can only give ideas for leadership consideration. They are not considered predictive because of the ex-post facto nature of the data allowing for no manipulation of variables.