At Freeport, the person who holds the enterprise together is Principal Sale-Davis, whose leadership style is reflected in a quote she likes from Joel Barker: "A leader is a person you would follow to a place you wouldn't go by yourself."

Where did Ms. Sale-Davis find the guiding constructs for her day-to-day know-how and strategic planning? She has been deeply influenced by both John Goodlad and W.E. Deming and likes to quote from each. Ms. Sale-Davis explains, "Goodlad says you are not the hero. You have to empower people to be heroes. Deming says you have to involve stakeholders. They must feel ownership. Deming says to drive fear out of the system, allow people to be risk-takers, find people's strengths." Ms. Sale-Davis cites Deming's 14 points of quality improvement, some of which she has restated or responded to in writing, on a card she carries in her daily planner to remind her of her personal goals.

Ms. Sale-Davis's leadership style merges selected teachings from Deming and Goodlad, with Texas accountability. When what Deming advocates is counter to what is being done in Texas (e.g., eliminate numerical quotas for staff and numerical goals for management; eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the staff; drive out fear), Ms. Sale-Davis turns to Goodlad: "You have to build a climate of assurance and leadership people can look to," she says. "That is what I try to do." She also disagrees somewhat with Deming: "I've worked with dead weight before. You have to inspire and motivate. Some of this is fearsome for people. They're fearful because of their data. They should be fearful." (In other words, she is willing to fire people.) She continues, "I love for the children to be proud of where they go to school. You can't get that by having an attitude of 'let the chips fall wherever they may.' No, we have to direct those chips. Goodlad says, 'You can be a part of the climate or create the climate.' What's bad about wanting all children to perform at peak level? That's the climate we've created."

Each April, after the TAAS, Ms. Sale-Davis passes out transfer slips to everyone. "This is an opportunity to move on," she says. "I don't want anybody here who doesn't want to be here." She says she doesn't fire people but rather that peer pressure does the job when someone isn't carrying the load or is incompetent: "They give and give, and then they cut bait." This pressure seems to be intense; in her first year as principal, nine teachers left.

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