the Queensway principal established an elaborate network of staff and pupil committees that allowed a flatter landscape for the sharing of ideas.
Thus, whilst we would disagree with Heck and Marcoulides (1996) that lead- ership skills amongst Singaporean school principals might not be as devel- oped as in the West, our study supports the conclusion of his survey research that effective schools in Singapore are schools that foster innova- tion and risk taking, teacher participation in decision making, and positive social relations. As the millenium approaches, there is generally recognition that there is no one recipe for school effectiveness. However, that does not mean that the search for generalizations is misguided. Societal culture is a useful concept precisely because it points to regularities that provide a general context in which schools are obliged to operate. In Singapore that context provides much higher levels of support for schools than is often the case overseas. Singapore schools can, so to speak, swim with the cultural tide and not against it. This goes some way toward explaining the high standards of Singapore schools in general. But societal culture alone will not explain why some schools, in similar