ABSTRACT
The main difference is that principals of effective schools are the instructional leaders in their buildings, whereas those in ineffective schools are not. The substance of the pattern of interior decoration doesn't discriminate, but it is a notable characteristic of the effective schools that they tend to be physically dominated by student work. The teachers in the effective schools make it clear that they expect some of their students to do better than others; they also make it clear that they are working with a minimum academic prerequisite and that they expect everybody to achieve it. Effective schools do not attempt to eliminate the achievement gap that separates poor children from middle-class children: they raise the floor below which nobody falls. The program uses people that have been trained to do systematic evaluations needs assessments-of individual schools. This chapter is based on a tape recording of his actual remarks at the Cornell Conference.
