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