Journal of the Effective Schools Project, Volume 6, 2000 Page: 35
60 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Empire State Building Factor:
Faster Is Better
BY CHARLES A. REAVIS, TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY
The author reports the results of his studies of effective schools
and describes one school's experiences implementing what he
has named as the Four Cornerstones of Success.The Empire State Building was built
in the 1930's. At the time, at 102 sto-
ries high, it was the tallest building in
the world and, even though there are
taller buildings in the world today, it
remains as one of the most famous
buildings in the world (in the movie,
"Sleepless in Seattle," Meg Ryan and
Tom Hanks hold their first meeting at
the top of the Empire State Building).
Question - how long do you think it
took to build it?
For the last thirteen years I have stud-
ied principals who have attained out-
standing success in bringing their
schools to high levels of achievement
in a short amount of time, usually less
than a year (Reavis, 1986; Reavis,
1999). It is not unusual for students
in these schools to raise achievement
scores by 50% in the first year of the
principal's tenure. My studies have
included all levels of schools in both
rural and urban areas and have been
restricted to schools that have high
numbers of minority and/or poor stu-
dents with a history of low achieve-
ment. Interestingly, these schools are
not solely "test driven," although they
do emphasize accountability. Instead,
they typically have a rich curriculum
with a range of courses, with a vari-
ety of learning experiences (thoughthis particular aspect of improvement
begins to appear in the second and
third years). Further, these schools
generally do well by a variety of mea-
sures such as UIL competitions, re-
duction in discipline referrals to the
principal's office, reduction in num-
ber of referrals to alternative schools,
increases in attendance, lower teacher
turn-over, higher teacher and student
morale. My studies have focused on
the work of the principal and have
included information from teacher
questionnaires, observations, focus
groups, interviews, shadow studies,
and document analysis. Rather than
impose an analytical framework on
the data, I have "allowed the data to
speak to me" (Goldhammer, 1968).
This type of analysis has the advan-
tage of capturing more of the reality
of the subject under study. My sum-
mation of the results of all of these
studies has culminated in what I have
come to call The Four Cornerstones
of Success. In the summer of 1998, I
offered a five day workshop for prin-
cipals and superintendents on the Four
Cornerstones. The remainder of this
article describes a typical school from
these studies to illustrate the Four Cor-
nerstones in action, the workshop, and
the results of those trained in that
workshop.For the last thirteen
years I have studied
principals who have
attained outstanding
success in bringing
their schools to high
levels of achievement
in a short amount
of time, usually less
than a year.35
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Tarleton State University. Effective Schools Project. Journal of the Effective Schools Project, Volume 6, 2000, periodical, 2000; Stephenville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth201683/m1/36/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.