Handbook of Urban Educational Leadership

Handbook of Urban Educational Leadership

Edited by Muhammad Khalifa, Noelle Witherspoon Arnold,

Azadeh F. Osanloo, and Cosette M. Grant

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Khalifa, Muhammad A., 1975–

Handbook of urban educational leadership / Muhammad Khalifa,
Noelle Witherspoon Arnold, Azadeh F. Osanloo , and Cosette M. Grant.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4422-2084-3 (cloth : alk. paper)— ISBN 978-1-4422-2085-0 (electronic)
1. Education, Urban—United States. 2. Education, Urban—United States—
Administration. 3. Educational leadership—United States. I. Title.
LC5131.K55 2015
370.9173'2—dc23
2014050039
™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Muhummad Khalifa
I dedicate this work to my mother, Faith; my pop, Aziz; my loving wife, Nimo; and my sons, Ibrahim, Adam, and
Zack. Thank you for your patience with me, and for bearing my absence as I push for this work for the voiceless
and oppressed.

Noelle Witherspoon Arnold

I dedicate this to my colleagues, Muhummad, Azadeh, and Cosette, and other scholars who share my commitment
to urban communities and to the educators, children, and families in them. And as always, I dedicate this to my
husband, who supports me in my “anger” and helps me channel it for advocacy and activism.

Azadeh F. Osanloo
To my mother—unequivocally, irrefutably, and unapologetically the strongest and most badass woman I know.

Cosette M. Grant
I dedicate this masterpiece handbook to my son, Jameson, our next-generation doctor, lawyer, inventor, president,
educator, or entrepreneur. Paving the way for you to bear the torch as you emerge and hoping you will be a force
one day for equity and access to high-quality education for all. I also celebrate this timely work with my colleagues,
who are trailblazers—Muhammad, Noelle, and Azadeh. May our individual and collective voices on urban edu-
cational leadership for the sake of advancing education, opportunities, and hence a better quality of life for our
children, continue to magnify and make a longstanding impact!
 Contents

Foreword xiii
Kofi Lomotey
Acknowledgments xxi
Section 1:   Urban Educational Leadership: A Historical Perspective
Section 1 Introduction 3
Rhodesia McMillian
 1   Urban Education and Leadership: A Historical Perspective 4
Judy Jackson May and Eugene Sanders
 2  Sankofa: Leadership and the Twenty-First-Century Black Female School Superintendents 21
Judy A. Alston
 3  Demographic and Professional Characteristics of Urban School Principals in the United States:
A Twenty-Year Trend Study 28
Jiangang Xia, Xingyuan Gao, and Jianping Shen
 4  An Interpretive History of Urban Education and Leadership in Age of Perceived Racial Invisibility 43
Brian J. Boggs and Chris Dunbar
Section 2:  Teaching, Learning, Curriculum, and Educational Outcomes
Section 2 Introduction 61
Rhodesia McMillian
 5  Creating a Culture of Confidence: Re-Conceptualizing Urban Educational Leadership 62
Yvette Jackson, Veronica McDermott, Marlon Simmons, and Mairi McDermott
 6  Bringing Urban High School Reform to Scale: Rapidly Moving Dramatic Numbers of Students
to Proficient Performance 71
Glenn Baete, Joe Burks, Marty Pollio, and Craig Hochbein
 7  Developing Teacher Leadership for Equity in Urban Schools 85
H. Richard Milner IV, Judson Laughter, and Joshua Childs
 8   Teachers Learning to Lead: An Action Research Process Model 91
Leena Furtado

vii
viii    CONTENTS

Section 3:  Gender, Race, Class, and Culture

Section 3 Introduction 113
Rhodesia McMillian
Voice from the Field: Critical Care, Collaborative Activism, and Professional Risk: Unsung Yet
Essential Aspects of Urban Educational Leadership 115
Camille M. Wilson
 9  Urban Schools, Black Principals, and Black Students: Culturally Responsive Education and the
Ethno-Humanist Role Identity 118
Kofi Lomotey and Kendra Lowery
10   Equity and Race-Visible Urban School Reform 135
Christine E. Sleeter
11  Culturally Responsive Leadership Preparation and Practices 147
Monica Wills Brown and Frankie K. Williams
12  From Dysconsciousness to Consciousness of Stereotypes That Disparage Black Youth: Calling
for Transformative School Leadership 159
Joyce E. King and Syreeta A. McTier
13  Tempered Radicalism in the Ivory Tower: Black Urban Educational Leaders Negotiating Lives
in a Creative Class City 176
Richard J. Reddick, Beth E. Bukoski, Stella L. Smith
Section 4:   Theory and Research Methodology
Section 4 Introduction 193
Rhodesia McMillian
Voice from the Field: Sound the “Bell”: Seeing Space, Seeing Color in Urban School
Leadership Discourses 194
Ty-Ron M. O. Douglas
14  Using Social Norming and Ecological Theories and Diversity-Based Strategies for Bullying
Interventions in Urban Areas: A Mixed-Methods Research Study 199
Azadeh F. Osanloo and Jonathan P. Schwartz
15  Toward Community-Centric Educational Leadership in Addressing the School Discipline Disparity 211
Jacqueline Roebuck Sakho, Ronald W. Whitaker II, and Rodney Hopson
16  Revisiting Black Feminist Thought and Home-School Relations in the U.S. South 224
Tondra L. Loder-Jackson, Andrew N. McKnight, Michael Brooks, and Tonya B. Perry
Section 5:   Parental Involvement and Community
Section 5 Introduction 241
Stefanie Marshall and Muhammad Khalifa
17  “I Know Momma Didn’t Have to Work This Hard”: Leadership Implications of Intergenerational
Differences in Engaging African-American Families 242
Cheryl Fields-Smith, Sheneka Williams, and Jaqueline Shoemaker
 CONTENTS    ix

18  Where Has All of the Community Rage Gone? Neoliberalism, Community Encroachment, and
Unconventional Resistance in Detroit 255
Muhammad Khalifa, Elizabeth Gil, Stefanie Marshall, and Gregory White
19  A Spectrum of Parent and Community Engagement for Conceptualizing and Responding to
the Institutional Complexity of Urban Schools 268
Sharon Watkins, Anika Ball Anthony, Christopher Shaffer, and Kirsten J. Smith
Section 6:   Social Justice, Equity, Advocacy, and Activism
Section 6 Introduction 283
Muhammad Khalifa and Stefanie Marshall
Voice from the Field: A Critical Race Theory Perspective on Urban School Leadership 284
Ivory Berry and Adrienne D. Dixson
20  AYP, Access, and Expectations: Superintendents’ Legal, Distributive, and Transformative
Approaches to Equity 287
Rachel Roegman and Thomas Hatch
21  Learning to Lead for Social Justice: How Leadership Preparation Programs Can Improve
Equity in Schools 303
Gaëtane Jean-Marie, Anthony H. Normore, and Jeffrey S. Brooks
22  Social Justice in Action: Urban School Leaders Address the School to Prison Pipeline via a
Youth Court 320
Heather Cole, Julian Vasquez Heilig, Tina Fernandez, Meg Clifford, and Rey Garcia
23  Actions Matter: How School Leaders Enact Equity Principles 329
Jessica G. Rigby and Lynda Tredway
Section 7:  Perspectives in Policy
Section 7 Introduction 349
Marlene Melendez
24  Urban Leadership, Neoliberalism, and New Policy Entrepreneurs: Merging Leadership
with Resistance 350
Gary L. Anderson, Michael I. Cohen, and Milagros Seraus
25  Destiny High School: Redesigning Urban High Schools for Student Success 362
Frank Gaines, Ira Bogotch, and Omar J. Salaam
26  Leaders of the New School(s): Reconceptualizing an Autonomy Framework for Urban Principals
Implementing Small School Reform 377
April L. Peters, Jia Liang, and Rejer Finklin
Section 8:  Leadership Preparation, Development, and Support
Section 8 Introduction 397
Jennifer Haan
Voice from the Field: A Theory of Emancipatory Leadership 398
Juanita M. Simmons
x    CONTENTS

27  Turnaround, School Choice, and the Hidden Discourses of Race in Leadership Preparation 401
Sarah Diem and Bradley W. Carpenter
28  The Urban School Leaders Collaborative: An Alternative and Effective Model for Leadership
Preparation and Practice 412
Encarnacion Garza Jr.
29  School Leadership in Urban Schools: How Social-Relational Leadership Shapes
Teacher Engagement 426
Heather E. Price
30  Preparing Leaders to Support the Education of Diverse Learners 441
Michelle D. Young, Mark A. Gooden, and Ann P. O’Doherty
31  Lessons from a District-Based Doctoral Cohort: Faculty Stories of Challenge, Opportunity,
and Impact 450
Mónica Byrne-Jiménez, Catherine DiMartino, and Eustace Thompson
Section 9:  Critical Foundations in Urban Educational Leadership
Section 9 Introduction 469
Adelina Rodriguez
32  College Readiness and Urban Schools: Challenges and Opportunities 470
Lindsay R. Granger and Pedro A. Noguera
33  Change Agency in Our Own Backyards: Meeting the Challenges of Next-Generation Programs
in School Leader Preparation 480
Steve Tozer, Paul Zavitkovsky, Sam Whalen, and Peter Martinez
34  Our Fierce Urgency of Now: Obstacles and Solutions for Improving the Promise of America 496
Eric J. Cooper
Section 10:  International and Global Perspectives in Urban Education and Leadership
Section 10 Introduction 517
Roberto Lozano
35  International Perspectives in Urban Educational Leadership: Social Justice Leadership and
High-Need Schools 518
Bruce Barnett and Howard Stevenson
36  Indigenous School Leadership in New Zealand: Cultural Responsivity for Diverse Learners in
Urban Schools 532
Lorri J. Santamaría, Andrés P. Santamaría, Melinda Webber, and Hoana Pearson
37  Crises, Critical Incidents, and Community and Educational Leadership 546
Noelle Witherspoon Arnold, Ty-Ron M. O. Douglas, and Tirza Wilbon-White
Section 11:  Directions in Urban Leadership: Challenges and Solutions
Section 11 Introduction 561
Amanda Lopez Askin
Voice from the Field: Urban School Leadership in Neoliberal Times: Critical Race Theory
Reflection Perspectives 562
Laurence Parker
 CONTENTS    xi

38  Urban Education Leadership in the Counseling Profession 565

Cirecie West-Olatunji
39  Principal Professional Identity and the Cultivation of Trust in Urban Schools 578
Rodney S. Whiteman, Samantha Paredes Scribner, and Gary M. Crow
40  Exemplary Leadership in Challenging Urban Public School Settings: It’s the Principal of the Thing 591
Harry Gutelius
41  School Turnaround: The Meaning of Capacity in Practice for African-American Women Principals 604
Cosette M. Grant
Epilogue: Urban Educational Leadership for the Twenty-First Century 624
Michael E. Dantley
Index 631
About the Editors 657
About the Contributors 659
 Foreword
Kofi Lomotey
Western Carolina University

In this country, one of the most challenging dilemmas of the twentieth and now the twenty-first centuries has been
our horrendous and continuous failure to adequately educate the large numbers of students in urban schools (Barton
and Coley, 2010; Delpit, 2012; Hrabowski, 2004; Krueger and Whitmore, 2001; Lee, 2002; National Commission
of Teaching and America’s Future, 2007; Paige and Witty, 2010; U.S. Department of Education, 2009). These
schools have changed substantially in a number of ways, including their structure, emphasis, and student charac-
teristics. In the face of these and many other changes, urban schools continue to fail the large majority of children
in their charge.
The structure of inner city schools today varies significantly from the way they were structured twenty-five years
ago. For one thing, we have magnet schools and charter schools. While magnet schools have been around since the
1960s (largely unsuccessful in their efforts to attract white families to inner city schools), twenty-five years ago
urban schools were primarily neighborhood schools.
Charter schools (on the whole, another failed reform effort) did not come about until the early part of the 1990s.
They now seem to have taken on the business model. They have become an investment product that is not evalu-
ated in terms of how well they serve families; instead the focus is on the profit margin. Indeed the public/private
partnership in education seems well on the road to privatization.

DEMOGRAPHICS

The student population in U.S. urban public schools has significantly changed in many ways over the past twenty-
five years. Racially, the percentage of Hispanic students in these schools has substantially increased, the percentage
of students who are white has drastically declined, and the percentage of black students has remained virtually
static (National Center for Education Statistics, 1996, 2013). (See table 0.1.)

Table 0.1.   Racial Composition of Students in Urban Public Schools in the U.S.
(1990, 2004 & 2010)

Whites (%) Blacks (%) Hispanics (%) Other (%)

1990 43 32 19 6
2004 na 28 29 Na
2010 20 33 38 9

Never before have we experienced the level of student diversity that we currently see in U.S. urban public
schools. (See the Sleeter chapter in this volume.) From 2000 to 2010, the percentage of English as a second lan-
guage (ESL) learners increased by nearly 54 percent and is considerably higher in urban schools than it is in rural
or suburban schools (Quartz, 2012). (See table 0.2.)

xiii
xiv    FOREWORD

Table 0.2.   ESL Learners in U.S. Schools (2004 & 2009)

Urban (%) Suburban (%) Rural (%) All (%)

2004 17 8 na 11
2009 19 10 6 na

By 2007, more than a third of the teachers in U.S. public schools were in urban centers, as were nearly a third of
the schools. In addition, as of 2011, almost 30 percent of the students in U.S. public schools were in urban districts
(National Center for Education Statistics, 2013; National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, 2007).
(See table 0.3.)

Table 0.3.   Selected Demographics in U.S. Urban and Non-Urban Public Schools (2007)

Total Urban Non-Urban

Teachers 3,447,000 1,229,398 (36%) 2,217,602 (64%)
Districts 14,383 850 (6%)1 13,533 (94%)
Schools 95,726 29,886 (31%) 65,840 (69%)
Students 49,000,000 14,000,000 (29%) 35,000,000 (71%)

STATE OF URBAN SCHOOLS

Glaringly, several negative sets of circumstances continue to be reflected in urban public schools in the United
States. These include:

•  Underachievement
•  Institutionalized white racism
•  Segregation
•  Poverty
•  Teacher flight
•  Poor teacher quality
•  Inadequate material resources (e.g., buildings, science labs, textbooks, physical education equipment)
•  Failed reform efforts
•  Pre-school to prison pipeline
•  High student dropout rate

Underachievement

We continue to fail students in U.S. urban public schools—particularly those who are poor and so-called mi-
nority—at astronomically high rates (Ahram, Stembridge, Fergus, and Noguera, 2011; Theoharis, 2009; Wright,
2012). (See the Sleeter chapter in this volume.) While researchers have identified a plethora of explanations for
this quandary—and posed solutions—rarely has their evidence-based research become effective funded policy.

Institutionalized White Racism

We live in a society—in a world—wherein people continue to be discriminated against, based upon the color of
their skin (and other illegitimate forms of exclusion). (See the Hopson, Whitaker, Sakho, and Wilkins; and King
and McTier chapters in this volume.)
 FOREWORD    xv

Segregation

Sixty-one years after Brown I (and sixty years after Brown II), black and Hispanic children continue to go to
school in largely segregated settings (Wright, 2012). Most black and Hispanic children in urban communities at-
tend public schools where the minority population exceeds 75 percent (Krauser, 2012). Indeed, in 2009 the twenty
largest urban school districts each had minority student enrollments of 80 percent or more (Quartz, 2012). While
segregation in and of itself is not necessarily problematic, more often than not, there is attendant inequity in human
and material resources that lead to disparate educational outcomes.

Poverty

Poverty continues to raise its ugly head in U.S. urban public schools as another major source of the challenges
therein. It is massive and increasing in urban schools. Fifty-six percent of urban school students qualify for free
lunch programs and 40 percent are eligible for Title I programs. In suburban communities, the comparable per-
centages are 32 percent and 20 percent respectively (Jacob, 2007). Poverty, unfortunately, is reflected in a lack of
educational resources in the home, increased crime, and many other less-than-desirable circumstances that are not
conducive to educational success.

Teacher Flight

With increased diversity of the student population in U.S. urban public schools, we have seen a remarkable
increase in the percentage of teachers leaving these schools. By 2005, 20 percent of teachers were leaving urban
schools each year. This was up by 50 percent from 1990 (National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future,
2007). By 2007, this mass exodus had led to what has become a $7 billion problem. The inconsistency associated
with high teacher turnover contributes to low student achievement.

Poor Teacher Quality

Teachers in urban schools—when compared to other teachers—generally have less teaching experience, lower
standardized achievement test scores, an inferior educational background, and are less likely to have appropriate
teacher certification. This is the case because the teachers with the best qualifications have the most options and
generally prefer to work in the “better” schools. Moreover, urban schools have the most difficulty attracting STEM
teachers. For example, 35 percent of urban schools have difficulty recruiting math teachers. In suburban schools,
the comparable statistic is 25 percent (Jacob, 2007).

Inadequate Material Resources

Still, in 2014, public schools in U.S. urban centers significantly lag behind in the quality and quantity of material
resources. The books used in the classroom are insufficient and older, the computers are substantially more aged,
and the science laboratory equipment is significantly outdated or nonexistent. Moreover, there is a lesser emphasis
on college preparation in the curriculum in part because of the relatively low teacher quality and the inadequate
material resources (Hudley, 2013). (See the Granger and Noguera chapter in this volume.)

Failed Reform Efforts

There have been few—if any—large-scale, national reform efforts in the history of U.S. education that have
benefitted the majority of students in urban public schools. I would agree with others who have argued that the
failures include—but are not limited to—charter schools, magnet schools, No Child Left Behind (Kozol, 2006;
xvi    FOREWORD

Wright, 2012), Race to the Top, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Wright, 2012), desegregation, and
so on. Most successful reforms have been brought about through relatively small-scale, localized efforts. (See, for
example, the Baete, Burks, Pollio, and Hochbein; Diem and Carpenter; and Peters, Liang, and Finklin chapters in
this volume.)

Pre-school to Prison Pipeline

Some states and/or municipalities are predicting future prison needs based upon third grade student success or
lack thereof. Related data are being accumulated by the U.S. Department of Education in concert with the U.S.
Department of Labor—as early as pre-school. (See the Cole, Heilig, Fernandez, Clifford, and Garcia chapter in
this volume.)
Let me take one Southern state to give an illustration of the current state of the penal system in the United
States—Louisiana. Here are a few highlights of the infamous Louisiana penal system.
Louisiana has more prisoners per capita than any state in the union. It has three times the incarceration rate
of Iran, seven times the rate of China, and ten times the rate of Germany. From 1992 to 2012, its prison popula-
tion doubled; it now totals more than forty thousand. One in eighty-six adults in Louisiana is doing time. In New
Orleans, one out of every fourteen black men is in prison, and one out of every seven black men is in prison, on
probation, or on parole.
In that city, five thousand black men and four hundred white men are incarcerated. Most prison entrepreneurs
in Louisiana are sheriffs. Think about that. Sheriffs build the prisons, sheriffs are responsible for filling them, and
when they get filled, sheriffs get paid—and their lobby prevents prison reform efforts from succeeding in Louisi-
ana. Also in Louisiana, if one is convicted of murder, they are automatically sentenced to life without parole. This
law has also made Louisiana the state with the highest percentage of inmates with life sentences without parole.
While a “poor” state, it spends $663 million a year on its inmates, and it rewards sheriffs, as $183 million of that
goes to for-profit prisons that they fill.

High Student Dropout Rate

Perhaps the most glaring comparison of urban and surrounding suburban nonurban public schools in the United
States is in the dropout rates. Nationally, in 2005, 47 percent of the students in urban schools dropped out of school;
for their adjacent non-urban schools, the percentage was 29. Some big cities showed significantly larger gaps (Dil-
lon, 2009). (See table 0.4.)

Table 0.4.   Selected Urban and Non-Urban Public School Dropout Rates in the U.S. (2005)

New York City Cleveland Baltimore

Urban 46 62 59
Suburban 17 20 19

SCHOLARSHIP ON URBAN SCHOOLS

Over the past fifty years, quite a bit of writing has been done about urban public schools in the United States.
However, little success in improving these schools has occurred; indeed, some argue that these schools may now
be worse.
I edited the journal Urban Education for nearly twenty years (1992–2011). During that time I read, on average,
more than two hundred manuscripts a year on various aspects of urban education, broadly defined. Some of them
were the best of the best; some were not so good. In the final analysis I learned quite a bit about inner city schools
 FOREWORD    xvii

and about the work of many of the scholars who conduct research on those schools. Contributors to the journal
wrote—and continue to write—about the importance of various factors in improving the academic success of stu-
dents in urban schools. They wrote/write about characteristics associated with:

•  teachers (experience, quality, attitudes and beliefs, etc.)

•  principals (leadership, management, experience, commitment, etc.)
•  parents/families/communities (socioeconomic status, attitudes, etc.) (See, for example, the Fields-Smith,
Williams, and Shoemaker; Khalifa, Gil, Marshall, and White; and Loder-Jackson, McKnight, Brooks, and
Perry chapters in this volume.)
•  students (background, attitudes, abilities, etc.)
•  schools and school districts (funding, class size, academic orientation, school size, etc.).

While much has been written on the various factors associated with urban school success, and while it is true
that there is enough responsibility to be spread around, I continue to believe in the unique importance of school
leadership in bringing about significant sustained improvement in the success of students in (urban) schools. (See
the Jackson, McDermott, Simmons, and McDermott chapter in this volume.) Certainly for African-American, His-
panic, Native American, and Asian students—and indeed for all students—a culturally responsive learning envi-
ronment is critical. (See, for example, the Brown and Williams; Lomotey and Lowery; and Santamaría, Santamaría,
Webber, and Pearson chapters in this volume.) In earlier work, along with Lowery, I discussed the importance of
the principal in bringing about a culturally responsive learning environment (Lomotey and Lowery, 2014).
There is a plethora of research illustrating the importance of several key characteristics of school leaders in
bringing about student success, including goal development, energy harnessing, communication facilitation, and
instructional leadership.

THIS VOLUME

Khalifa, Witherspoon Arnold, Osanloo, and Grant have put together a volume that is important for several reasons.
First, it focuses on school leadership and its importance in urban schools. And the concept of leadership is defined
broadly herein to include the leadership provided not only by administrators, but also by teachers, counselors, and
parents and community people. (See, for example, the Furtado; Milner, Laughter, and Childs; Reddick, Smith, and
Bukoski; and West-Olatunji chapters in this volume.) The authors do a good job of describing the previous work
in their respective areas, and they build on that work in a useful way.
This volume is important because it provides a vision for the future with regard to the education of students in
urban public schools. (See, for example, the Price; May and Sanders; Watkins, Anthony, Shaffer, and Smith; and
Whiteman, Scribner, and Crow chapters in this volume.) More particularly, the authors in this volume provide an
analysis of best practices in urban public schools. (See, for example, the Baete; Burks, Pollio, and Hochbein; Garza;
Gutelius; Osanloo and Schwartz; and Young, Gooden, and O’Doherty chapters in this volume.)
In fact, the historical perspectives offered in this volume are invaluable. (See, for example, the May and Sanders;
Alston; Xia, Gao, and Shen; and Boggs and Dunbar chapters in this volume.) For if we are unable to understand
where we have been, we will have difficulty planning our way forward. This has been a problem thus far with na-
tional educational policy initiatives (e.g., magnet schools, No Child Left Behind, charter schools, Race to the Top).
A critical part of the discussion in this volume focuses on the many dimensions of the politics of education. (See
the Gaines, Bogotch, and Salaam chapter in this volume.)
The volume also focuses on the importance of social justice, equity, and ethics. (See, for example, the Barnett
and Stevenson; Jean-Marie, Normore, and Brooks; Rigby and Tredway; and Roegman and Hatch chapters in this
volume.)
xviii    FOREWORD

There is no doubt that research and publications on urban schools and on how to make them work better will
continue to appear in Urban Education and other leading journals on urban schools. It is also likely that—in part
because of the contributions in this volume—we will become better at educating the students who attend these
schools. This is true because we are getting better at this work; the current volume is a testament to this fact—as
well as a wake-up call.
Leadership, broadly defined, must continue to be a focus of our exploration. Leaders have the potential to influ-
ence community people, parents, teachers, and, most importantly, students in fundamentally enlightening ways.
This volume reinforces this truism.
What is also made clear through this volume is that when leadership is broadly defined, there is hope of improv-
ing the circumstances of students in urban public schools in the United States in a more comprehensive way. In
all schools and in all communities there are leaders (and potential leaders) who do not sit in the principal’s office;
these leaders must be allowed to shine.

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education. Thousand Oaks: CA: Sage.
Ravitch, D. (1998). A new era in urban education? Brookings Policy Brief Series. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institute.
 FOREWORD    xix

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2009). Characteristics of public, private, and Bureau
of Indian Education elementary and secondary schools in the United States: Results from the 2007–08 Schools and Staffing
Survey (NCES 2009-321). nces.ed.gov/FastFacts/display.asp?id=55-22k
Wright, W. (March 29–31, 2012). The disparities between urban and suburban American educational systems: A comparative
analysis using social closure theory. Proceedings of the National Conference on Undergraduate Research HUSL(NCUR).
Weber State University, Ogden, Utah.
 Acknowledgments

The Editors first of all thank former Rowman & Littlefield acquisitions editor Nancy Evans, for offering the first
contract and for being so enthusiastic and supportive about the project. We could not have done this without you.
We miss you.

Sarah Kendall, our new R&L editor, you did not skip a beat when this project was turned over to you, and we thank
you so much for helping guide us to the home stretch. You were the right editor at the right time. Carlie Wall—what
can we say? You are amazing.

Thank you to all the amazing scholars and contributors to this Handbook. Your inclusion makes this a premier ref-
erence for scholars and practitioners. We are so honored to have you. Moreover, this was quite a task to undertake
as mid-career professionals, and we have benefited greatly from all your knowledge, expertise, and suggestions.

Thank you to Rhodesia McMillian, University of Missouri graduate assistant, for all your work on this. We thank
you for keeping us organized. We appreciate all your hard work, but mostly your kind spirit. Thank you also to
Laurita Mendez, New Mexico State University graduate assistant, for being our eleventh-hour savior. And lastly,
we thank Elizabeth Gil, Michigan State University graduate assistant, for organizing us early on in the project.

Finally we thank our own personal circle of friend-scholars who have supported us, served as sounding boards,
and made the work fun.

xxi
 SECTION 1

URBAN EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

A Historical Perspective
 Section 1 Introduction
Rhodesia McMillian

In this section we examine the history of urban com- by reflecting on the legacy of the Jeanes supervisors to
munities and educational leadership. While this section provide lessons for the twenty-first-century African-
cannot explore all of history, we do examine critical American female superintendent.
periods and incidents that impact modern urban edu- The authors of chapter 3, “Demographic and Pro-
cation and leadership. In chapter 1, “Urban Education fessional Characteristics of Urban School Principals
and Leadership: A Historical Perspective,” Judy Jack- in the United States: A 20-Year Trend Study,” ex-
son May and Eugene Sanders examine the nexus be- amine the historic trends of urban school principals’
tween urban culture and communities, and significant demographic and professional characteristics over the
educational policy decisions from post-World War II last twenty years. Jiangang Xia, Xingyuan Gao, and
through contemporary reform and transformation. Jianping Shen give an important look at various is-
Judy A. Alston builds on concepts in May and sues impacting urban school principals, such as race,
Sanders’s work in chapter 2, “Sankofa: Leadership gender, and principal preparation. The section ends
and the Twenty-First Century Black Female School with chapter 4, “An Interpretive History of Urban
Superintendents,” by discussing the historic Brown de- Education and Leadership in Age of Perceived Racial
cision of 1954 the loss of black teachers and adminis- Invisibility” by Brian J. Boggs and Chris Dunbar. The
trators in public schools. Ten years after the ruling, the authors offer a fitting ending to this section as they
number of black principals in the eleven southern bor- unpack the social and political review of the history or
der states (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, evolution of urban education through a policy lens-the
Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, creation of urban communities and subsequent urban
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas) dropped by 95 schools pre-and post-Brown.
percent (Coursen, 1989). Alston focuses her chapter

3
 CHAPTER 1

Urban Education and Leadership

A Historical Perspective
Judy Jackson May and Eugene Sanders

This chapter explores the relationship between urban INDUSTRIALIZATION, URBANIZATION, AND
culture, communities, and educational policy from BUREAUCRACY IN THE POST–WORLD
an organizational transformation perspective. The WAR II ERA
authors focus on the span between post–World War
Urban school transformation in the twenty-first cen-
II and significant contemporary initiatives such as No
tury is complex and contextual. Examination of the
Child Left Behind and school transformation efforts.
current efforts to improve the quality of schools and
Captured in the discussion is the persistent impact
communities in urban centers requires a perspective
of urbanization and industrialization on our current
of the historical role of political, economic, and social
educational challenges. The decades of school reform
forces. To explore the evolution of urban culture, com-
in American education are framed by chronicling
munities, and educational leadership, it is important to
early school improvement efforts, beginning with the
recognize the persistent and inescapable impact of in-
release of A Nation At Risk and concluding with our
dustrialization on urban centers and, subsequently, ur-
current quest for global competitiveness. Reflecting
ban education. While the nineteenth century is charac-
on the nexus between urban culture, communities,
terized as a period of institution building in America,
and educational leadership, the authors posit five
the twentieth century is characterized by urbanization
significant lessons learned from the last fifty years of
and a growing bureaucracy within educational institu-
American education.
tions (Kanter and Lowe, 1995).
Lesson One: The economic and political survival of As cities began to grow in size and complexity, pub-
the United States of America is 100 percent con- lic funding for urban schools grew out of a need to cre-
tingent upon the creation of a national wholesale ate social stability (Payne, 2008). The educational goal
transformation plan for public schools. was to ensure that all newcomers (immigrants) were
Lesson Two: Comprehensive school reform will be trained to become responsible citizens and able to meet
difficult, disruptive, emotional, and volatile. Be the demands of the burgeoning industrialization com-
prepared for community unrest when implement- plex. Growing urban centers and the economic viability
ing a transformation plan. of the nation became increasingly more dependent on
Lesson Three: Money, in and of itself, is not the expanding the skilled labor force needed to maintain a
total solution to successful school transformation. vibrant country. With an expanding economy and plen-
Lesson Four: Failure to successfully accomplish tiful jobs, the consequences for dropping out of school
the goals of a national transformation plan must were negligible (Cuban, 1989). Rumberger (1987)
have consequences for all groups within the edu- cites that in 1940 “more than 60 percent of all persons
cational organization. 25–29 years old had not completed high school” (p.
Lesson Five: Ensure sustainability of the transfor- 101). By 1980, however, the national dropout rate of
mation plan by institutionalizing and creating whites and African Americans, aged 16–19, improved
what has been coined as a “sense of urgency” for significantly to 12 percent and 14 percent respectively,
implementation. but Latinos lagged markedly behind at 28 percent

4
 URBAN EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP   5

(Rumberger, 1987). In spite of the 1980s dropout rate by dominant social forces that play out in response
decline nationally, urban school centers continue to to public policy decisions and practices of powerful
battle rates of 50 percent among African-American and private institutions” (para. 5). Consequently, inner-city
Latino populations (Nogura and Wells, 2011). urban communities continue to serve families who are
The cost of urbanization and industrialization in- unable to migrate to suburban communities, and often
clude a boundless spectrum of social, political, and present layers of challenges for urban school and com-
economic challenges that continue to haunt our societal munity leaders (Kruse, 2005).
consciousness. Over fifty years ago, Leo F. Schnore Hunter and Bartee cite extensive research illustrat-
wrote, “the vast majority of social phenomena identi- ing that social and environmental contexts have a
fied as problematic are they themselves correlates, significant impact on the development of children (as
concomitants, or consequences of urban industrialism” cited in May, 2006). This is particularly distressing for
(1962, p. 228). Many of our societal and educational youth of color because schools are perceived as the
challenges, whether direct or indirect, regardless of the gateway to economic prosperity through the creation
origins, are most noticeable in urban settings (Schnore, of a competitive workforce (Lytle, 1992). Students
1962). While issues such as poverty, joblessness, who are not successful are blamed, either as a fam-
homelessness, crime, low academic achievement, and ily or individual, for their perceived lack of ability,
systemic racial injustices are found in nearly every character, or motivation, or for parents failing to pre-
corner of the nation, they are exacerbated and magni- pare children for school (Cuban, 1989; O’Connor and
fied in densely populated areas (Ahram, Stembridge, Fernandez, 2006). Others argue that the plight of the
Fergus, and Nogura, 2012). urban poor is an individual choice based on financial
As post–World War II urban centers continued to capacity (Squires and Kubrin, 2006) and again focuses
grow, negative perceptions relative to living condi- on the individuals’ failure as the cause of the problems
tions and academic quality began to typify urban (Blanchett, Mumford, and Beachum, 2005). Accord-
communities (Rury and Saatcioglu, 2011). In contrast, ing to May (2006),
“the rapidly growing suburbs exhibited higher income,
less racial and ethnic diversity, and lower population the academic failure of urban children provides valida-
density” (Rury and Saatcioglu, 2011, p. 308), and sig- tion to the meritocracy ethos that undergirds the belief
nificant numbers of Americans viewed suburban com- system of many Americans. Meritocracy refers to a
munities as representing a more desirable standard of social system where people achieve success propor-
living. As a result, “white flight,” or the move of more tionate to their talents and abilities, as opposed to one
affluent whites from urban to suburban communities, in which social class, or wealth play a significant role.
If we, as a nation, overtly acknowledge that wealth,
economic, political, and educational deterioration be-
or lack thereof, plays a role in the success one is able
gan to occur.
to obtain, we also have to acknowledge that some
Describing the role of “white flight” on the loss of
individuals are privileged by wealth and may even be
financial and social capital, West (1994) describes, bestowed with such at birth. This suggests that some
individuals may not have a fair or equal opportunity
the exodus of stable industrial jobs from urban centers for economic or academic success. (p. 44)
to cheaper labor markets here and abroad, housing
policies that created “chocolate cities and vanilla sub-
urbs,” and White fear of Black crime . . . .as helping Many factors contribute to urban school failure,
to erode the tax base of American cities just as the but most pervasive is the inability to overcome the in-
federal government has cut its support and programs. stitutional, social, political, and economic forces that
The result is unemployment, hunger, homelessness, “undermine the educational progress and economic
and sickness for millions. (p. 9) mobility of non-white poor students” (Kincheloe, as
cited in Blanchett, Mumford, and Beachum, 2005,
Squires and Kubrin (2006) describe the ensuing ur- p. 74). Many urban schools represent a small-scale
ban and suburban disparities with clarity, writing, “the version of the societal, economic, and political aura
linkages among place, race, and privilege are shaped (Blanchett, Mumford, and Beachum, 2005) and are
6    JUDY JACKSON MAY AND EUGENE SANDERS

plagued by high unemployment rates, a lack of eco- KEY POST–WORLD WAR II EDUCATIONAL
nomic progress, and the exclusion of minorities from POLICIES IMPACTING URBAN COMMUNITIES
the fiscal picture (Urban Economic Working Group,
1990). In actuality, the genesis of urban deterioration In the post–World War II era, a number of key mea-
is largely based on racial bias in policy and practices sures serve to shape the evolution of the American
emanating from powerful economic, political, and educational agenda. These key actions are significant
social institutional structures (Squires and Kubrin, because they undergird the path of educational policy.
2006). Economic, political, and institutional prac- While any number of significant movements can be
tices include the Federal Housing Administration’s illuminated, four are selected for review including
discriminatory practices to racially and financially (a) the Truman Commission, (b) the Brown v. Board
restrict mortgage loans based on race by withholding of Education of Topeka Supreme Court decision, (c)
mortgage capital for those who could purchase homes President Johnson’s 1964 War on Poverty and the El-
(commonly called redlining) (Wilson, 2011); urban ementary and Secondary Act of 1965, and (d) A Nation
zoning policies excluding single-family dwellings, at Risk and the Standards-Based Reform Movement of
while incorporating concentrations of public housing; the 1980s.
federal tax incentives and infrastructure investments President Truman’s Commission on Higher Ed-
for suburban communities, encouraging business and ucation. Immediately following World War II in
jobs to vacate urban centers; and the use of public 1946, President Harry Truman (the only president in
funds to build highways separating urban neighbor- the twentieth century to not graduate from college)
hoods from business and white areas (Wilson, 2011). appoints a higher education commission to examine
Racial and economic disparities continue as tena- the role of higher education in our democracy. The
cious forces yet to be overcome, and even with simi- findings of the Commission highlight that post–World
lar education, blacks earn 60 percent of what whites War II access to higher education is inequitable and
earn, contributing to communal wealth disparities. far too dependent on the circumstances surrounding an
Squires and Kubrin (2006) cite that “as of the year individual’s community, race, family, gender, and reli-
2000 no group is more physically isolated from jobs gion (Gilbert and Heller, 2010). “The Truman Report”
than Blacks” (para. 18). acknowledges that economic factors serve as a major
Neighborhoods of highly concentrated poverty are obstacle for individuals from low economic environ-
seen as dangerous, and therefore become more so- ments. Further, the report asserts that discrimination
cially and economically isolated as they are avoided should not occur based on one’s background skills and
for being such (Jargowsky, 1994). Over time, the abilities, but in fact should illuminate the need for a
word “urban” has become synonymous with negative variety of available post-secondary opportunities (Gil-
connotations, and Buendia (2011) notes that the word bert and Heller, 2010). Hutchinson (2002) notes the
“engages” a discussion of the poor and racial other, as significance of the Truman Report as the first national
well as the location, or place, in which these popula- dialogue relative to opportunities for higher education,
tions reside (p. 2). Further, Buendia describes terms noting that access was contingent on the influences of
often associated with urban such as “dysfunctional social and economic factors on the individual (as cited
family, zones of blight, the diseased center, violent, in Gilbert and Heller, 2010).
and at-risk” (p. 3). Brown v. Board of Education Decision of 1954.
As presented, much research show that the forces Historians view the Brown v. Board of Education
surrounding industrialization create a “domino effect,” Supreme Court decision as the most significant event
adversely affecting economic and political structures in the history of American education (Blanchett,
that, in turn, have devastating effects on urban com- Mumford, and Beachum, 2005). By overturning the
munities and schools. These stubborn trends are separate but equal clause established in the 1896
entrenched in our urban centers and will remain sig- landmark Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision
nificant components shaping the twenty-first-century (Paris, 1994), the courts assert that segregated schools
educational landscape. deny black students their constitutional right to equal
 URBAN EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP   7

protection under the law for all citizens as guaranteed that education” (Edmonds as cited in Lytle, 1992, p.
by the Fourteenth Amendment. This reform measure 122), and schools are “strategically located in the life
shook the foundation upon which public schools had of a child . . . a critical societal institution” (Comer as
been built for over one hundred years (Garrison, 2009). cited in Lytle, 1992, p. 122). Historically, the strong
cultural link between urban schools and the com-
THE EFFECT OF BROWN ON URBAN CULTURE, munity allows the school to serve as a focal point of
COMMUNITIES, AND EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP a child’s development (Woodruff, 1997). From the
classroom to the grocery store, teachers, administra-
Considerable literature exists reflecting the significant tors, and staff are community centerpieces, affording
dynamics between culture, community, and education informal parental access to student progress as well
in urban environments (Delpit, 1995; Goodlad, 1984; as demonstrating positive teacher parent interactions
Lytle, 1992; Sheldon 2003; Warren, 2005). Research- (Woodruff, 1997). Classrooms that reflect a child’s
ers find that positive school–community relationships experiences, values, community, and culture make a
assist in creating learning environments that foster child feel “significant and cared for,” and elimination
the academic, emotional, and social development of of this dynamic creates barriers between the school’s
black and minority children. A school community re- goals and the child’s innate abilities (Woodruff, 1997;
fers to the familial, socio-economic, experiential, and para. 3). Woodruff further claims that school “loses its
civic attachments that are vested in its well-being and relevance as a valid source of knowledge” with staff
growth (Great Schools Partnerships, 2013). Peterson that cannot identify with the child’s life (Woodruff,
(1994) describes culture as a “complex web of norms, 1997; para. 3). Meier, Stewart, and England (1989)
values, beliefs, assumptions, traditions, and rituals that reference that “black teachers are more likely to iden-
are built up over time as teachers, parents, and admin- tify black students as gifted and less likely to refer
istrators work together, deal with crises, and develop them for special education, expulsion, and suspension
unstated expectations for interacting and working to- . . . Black teachers are without a doubt the key to stu-
gether” (para. 5). The positive interaction among these dent academic success” (p. 6). Irvine and Irvine (1983)
community and cultural variables promotes schools surmise that the effects of Brown “significantly altered
reflecting the child’s values, and are more likely to the pupil-teacher relationship, which has historically
engage parents naturally in the educational process. been the foundation for black student achievement”
Parental engagement and involvement in the edu- (p. 415). Reflecting on the work of Billingsley, Irvine
cational process is a significant contributor to student (2007) postulates that Brown essentially dismantled
success, and studies point to a positive relationship be- the collective support of the black community struc-
tween parent involvement and academic achievement ture, “diluting its collective whole, collective struggle,
(Arnold, Zeljo, Doctoroff, and Ortiz, 2008; Barnard, and collective will” (p. 301).
2004; Marcon, 1999). Further, decades of research In the wake of desegregation, the unintended con-
show that positive parental involvement in urban sequences on home–school relationships in the urban
communities is a result of familial values and active community remain (Woodruff, 1997). In the eleven
school connections (Clark 1983; Hoover-Dempsey years post Brown, the number of African-American
and Sandler, 1997; Sheldon, 2003) between the school teachers and administrators, providing instruction for
and school leaders. two million minority children, dwindled by 46 percent
Prior to the Brown decision African-American from 82,000 to 44,000 (Toppo, 2004). Additionally,
students attended neighborhood schools with African- Toppo (2004) reports that in states such as Arkansas
American teachers and administrators who generally and Texas, 90 percent of the African-American prin-
held high expectations for achievement. Through the cipals lost their leadership posts, no African-American
seminal work of renowned researchers such as Ron educators were hired in desegregated districts for a
Edmonds and James Comer, we understand that “all decade beginning in 1958, and inferior white teachers
children are eminently educable and that the behavior were hired in the place of qualified African-American
of the school is critical in determining the quality of educators. The loss of the leadership of the teachers
8    JUDY JACKSON MAY AND EUGENE SANDERS

and principals in the wake of Brown is significant. the federal government’s absolute entrance into the
Leadership is a critical component in urban schools realm of public education (Hanna, 2005).
because “teachers, principals, and superintendents all A Nation at Risk and the Standards Movement.
function daily as group leaders” (Lytle, 1992, p. 117). The decade of the 1980s is characterized by the re-
Literature continues to emphasize that the role of the lease of several pieces of powerful literature on the
school leader is key in creating effective schools. challenges facing public schools and the initiation of a
Many scholars assert that the leader’s impact on stu- national standards movement. In addition to reporting
dent scholarship cannot be overstressed and the prin- on the deeply inadequate state of the nation’s educa-
cipal maintains a significant effect on the effectiveness tional system, these publications provide the impetus
of the school and the academic success of the students for decades of sweeping reform measures attempting
(Halawah, 2005; Hallinger and Heck, 1998; Murphy, to address student failure.
2010). In 1983 the National Commission on Excellence in
President Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 War on Pov- Education released A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for
erty and the Elementary and Secondary Education Educational Reform. This pivotal document draws grim
Act of 1965. In 1964 President Johnson, a former attention to America’s pervasive failure to adequately
teacher, introduced the Economic Opportunity Act, educate its youth and is credited with initiating the de-
officially initiating his “War on Poverty.” The Act cre- cades of reform movements to follow. In 1986, on the
ated the Office of Economic Opportunity where initia- not-yet-cooled heels of A Nation at Risk, came two more
tives such as Head Start, Job Corps, and the Office of critical publications: A Nation Prepared: Teachers for
Child Development began (Hanna, 2005). the Twenty-first Century, a publication sponsored by the
While the Truman Report marks the first higher Carnegie Task Force on Teaching as a Profession, and
education dialogue, the Elementary and Second- Tomorrow’s Teachers published by the Holmes Group.
ary Education Act (ESEA) marks the first national According to the Carnegie Task Force on Teaching (as
conversation relative to additional funding for K–12 cited in Labaree, 1992), “the key to success lies in creat-
education (Sunderman, 2009). This comprehensive ing a profession equal to the task—a profession of well-
legislation is the most extensive federal education educated teachers prepared to assume new powers and
bill in history and provides funds for primary and responsibilities to redesign schools for the future” (p.
secondary education while explicitly forbidding the 124). While the focus of the Holmes Group was the im-
establishment of a national curriculum. According to provement of teacher preparation institutions, both the
the National Education Association, central to ESEA Carnegie and Holmes groups support the elimination of
legislation is providing large financial resources, undergraduate degrees in favor of requiring a graduate
known as Title I funds, to “bridge the gap between degree (Labaree, 1992; Wiggins, 1986). Additionally,
hopelessness and hope for more than five million the two groups promote the reduction of bureaucratic
educationally deprived children” (Jehlen, n.d, para. authority and the increase of teacher autonomy with
2). The legislation focuses on policies to equalize stratified levels of professionalism and compensation
educational opportunity through the redistribution of (Labaree, 1992; Wiggins, 1986).
resources to promote attention to educational issues A Nation at Risk provides the impetus for a national
not adequately addressed at the local level (Sunder- agenda to create curricular standards identifying what
man, 2009). The four major components of the ESEA students need to know and what students should be
legislation include (1) professional development, (2) expected to do to be successful in life. Silver (2004)
instructional materials, (3) educational programs, and describes the nation’s reform movements in three basic
(4) promotion of parent involvement. The signifi- trends, namely: (a) standards-based reform (improving
cance of this legislation is the national and concerted student learning through the provision of clear goals
attention drawn to more effectively meeting the needs and assessments), (b) comprehensive school reform
of the nation’s impoverished youth. As a result of (improving student learning through whole school ef-
Johnson’s War on Poverty, funding to school dis- forts focusing on the use of research-based practices),
tricts soared from $1.5 billion to $4 billion, signaling and (c) student-centered reform (improving student
 URBAN EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP   9

learning by focusing on caring teachers, positive cul- school reform. Commissioned by President Ronald
ture, and relationships). The combination of clear goals Reagan’s Secretary of Education Terrell H. Bell, the
and assessments are to ensure the academic success of report criticizes the nation for failing to adequately
all students, and the National Council of Teachers of educate its youth. The report calls for sweeping re-
Mathematics and the National Board for Professional form in student achievement and teacher training. A
Teaching Standards are two of the first groups to pub- notable phrase of the report reads: “if an unfriendly
lish national curriculum standards (Silver, 2004). Lee foreign power had attempted to impose on America
and Ready (2009) also provide three stages for con- the mediocre educational performance the commis-
ceptualizing the standards-based movement for high sion found, that nation might have viewed it as an act
schools. The first phase, initiated during the 1980s, of war” (National Commission on Excellence 1983,
introduces broad reform pushing for more courses in para. 2). The report identifies eight risk factors in con-
core subjects. The second phase moves the focus from temporary school reform. The risk factors include (a)
how many courses students should take to what courses poor academic performance compared to international
students should take. And the third phase focuses on students, (b) high levels of illiteracy among seven-
college preparation. Our current reform agenda centers teen-year-olds, (c) declining achievement scores, (d)
on outlining common core standards to create high increased enrollment in collegiate remedial courses,
school graduates ready for college, career, and life. (e) diluted curriculum in schools, (f) low expectations
for student performance, (g) less time devoted to in-
struction and homework, and (h) poor quality teachers
A FRAMEWORK FOR CONTEXTUALIZING
(National Commission on Excellence 1983, para. 12).
DECADES OF REFORM
What scholars and educators remember about A Nation
As the chapter highlights, the release of A Nation at at Risk is that it concludes with the notion that “for the
Risk (National Commission on Education, 1983) es- first time in history, the educational skills of one gen-
sentially marks the contemporary (1983–current) be- eration will not surpass, will not equal, will not even
ginning of school reform efforts in American schools. approach that of their parents” (National Commission
The impact of this pivotal document is explored in on Excellence 1983, para. 17).
three major eras: Following the release of A Nation at Risk, the next
two decades resulted in a significant focus on school
1.  Early Stage of Reform Awareness from 1983 to improvement efforts at the local, state, and federal
1993. levels. The state of California is one of the first states
2.  Stage of Pseudo Accountability from 1993 to to pass legislation after the release of the report, result-
2003. ing in the adoption of an education reform bill raising
3.  Stage of Testing, Economic Reinvestment, and expectations for homework, student conduct, testing,
Globalization from 2003 to Current. graduation requirements, length of the school day and
year, and funding (Cohen and Hill, 2000).
In addition to discussing the three major reform eras, The mid-1980s became a period of a growing aware-
characteristics describing a fourth stage are explored. ness of the lack of confidence in American schools,
This emerging and dynamically evolving fourth period as well as more fully acknowledging the connection
is the Transformation and Innovation Stage. between economic stability, graduation rates, and
general school achievement (Chubb and Moe, 1990).
Economists Richard Murnane and Frank Levy (1996)
The Early Stage of Reform Awareness, 1983–1993
summarize the education and economic correlation
The Early Stage of Reform Awareness begins in by identifying three comprehensive or basic skills
1983 with the official release of A Nation at Risk: The that American students need to enhance business and
Imperative for Educational Reform (National Commis- economic stability: (a) basic mathematics including
sion on Excellence, 1983). This important document is problem solving and reading abilities, (b) the ability
the beginning of the call for major systemic public to work in groups and make effective oral and written
10    JUDY JACKSON MAY AND EUGENE SANDERS

presentations, and (c) the ability to use personal com- of practical steps to improve the academic achieve-
puters. This era increases critical attention on teachers, ment of the nation’s children. In addition to the lack
teacher unions, and the state of teacher professional- of grassroots efforts to improvement, there is a seri-
ism development. Labaree (1992) elaborates on two ous lack of accountability. Federal education agencies
significant reports that address a central theme of the become experts at pushing policy decisions down to
Early Stage of Reform Awareness, namely the Carn- the state level, and the state departments of education
egie Task Force on Teaching as a Profession (1986) establish a reputation for pushing unpopular decisions
and the Holmes Group, which published Tomorrow’s down to the local level. Community members want to
Teachers (1986). Labaree notes that “both of these know who is in charge and who is accountable for the
reports argue the quality of public education can only improvement. The period of 1992–2002 is referred to
improve if teaching is transformed into a full fledge as the Stage of Pseudo Accountability because it ush-
profession” (p. 124). ers in an era of educational reform where stakeholders
The awareness period also put more emphasis on attempt to identify the parties accountable for national
state education agencies and heightened the debate school improvement (Beyer and Zeichner, 1987). The
about local versus state control (Holmes Group, 1986). term “pseudo” is used because calls for greater ac-
Conversations among scholars and practitioners rela- countability reflect increases in standards and financial
tive to “unfunded mandates,” local funding sources, investment, but fail to show academic growth.
and the role of teachers in the reform process began In early 1990s a considerable amount of energy
to unfold, and the National Board of Professional is devoted to establishing standards by which both
Standards establishes certification for the teaching states and local districts could be measured (Elmore
profession (National Board of Professional Teaching and Associates, 1990) as well as consequences for not
Standards, 1989). The Awareness Stage brought ad- measuring up. This period focuses on establishing con-
ditional upheaval around the discussion of who the sig- tent and performance standards and creating a culture
nificant players should be in the national debate about to govern conditions for learning (Gage and Needels,
school reform. Cherryholmes (1987) notes that prior to 1989). The standards period has the sound of true ac-
the early 1980s, much of the school reform debate was countability, but ultimately is again void of measur-
restricted to circles of teachers and education interest able results. The focus on systemic educational change
groups. Following the release of A Nation at Risk and in the Pseudo Accountability Stage proves problematic
subsequent analysis of the report, state policymakers, as leaders question where to concentrate their efforts
business leaders, mayors, and activist parent groups (Wilson, 1987). Target areas for consideration include
demanded inclusion in the debate and more account- coherent learning goals, curriculum changes, and edu-
ability of results. In sum, the Early Stage of Reform cator professional development. Additionally, the de-
Awareness signals the importance of public schools to cade of the 1990s is witness to fourteen state supreme
both the economy and the overall stability of the nation court decisions surrounding school finance relating to
(Wiggins, 1986). The period also calls attention to the “how much does it cost to educate a child?” and the
notion that critical steps are necessary to move America constitutionality and equity of using property taxes as
off the track of mediocrity and the inability to compete a means to determine school funding.
internationally. The Early Stage of Reform Awareness Perhaps the most significant educational activity
puts the discussion of schools front and center for many of the Pseudo Accountability Stage is the Educate
Americans, and the stage that follows, the Pseudo Ac- America Act of 1994 or Goals 2000 (Paris, 1994).
countability Stage, characterizes the need to determine This legislation provides $105 million for a broad
who would indeed be accountable for results. list of academic goals designed to be achieved by the
year 2000. The Educate America Act of 1994 presents
six broad educational goals: (a) school readiness, (b)
The Stage of Pseudo Accountability, 1993–2003
school completion, (c) student academic achievement,
The Awareness Stages closes with public debate on (d) leadership in math and science, (e) adult literacy,
what is wrong with education, offering little in the way and (f) drug-free schools (Federal Education Policy
 URBAN EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP   11

History, 2011). This most recent accountability design the increase in testing by state and local educational
spells disaster from the beginning. Under the plan, organizations, and the relationship between educa-
individual states submit applications to the Depart- tional attainment and the economic viability of the
ment of Education depicting how their goals are to nation. The section also provides a perspective on the
be reached. Eager to gain national education funding, globalization factors that impact the quality of schools
state boards of education develop elaborate plans but in urban communities.
lack appropriate accountability measures. A review of When President George W. Bush secures support
the goals below reveals little progress in accomplish- from a Democratic Congress to pass No Child Left
ing the mission. The goals from The Educate America Behind (NCLB) in early 2002, waves of reform occur
Act of 1994 include: at every level of governance. NCLB, a reauthorization
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
1.  All children in America will start the day ready 1965, rests on high standards, accountability, and the
to learn. notion that all students must succeed. One of the most
2.  High school graduation rate will be at least 90 significant differences between NCLB and other leg-
percent. islation is the inclusion of consequences or penalties
3.  Grades 4, 8, and 12 will demonstrate competency for unsuccessful schools. Central to NCLB legislation
in content areas such as English, math, science, requires states expand the scope of testing in reading
foreign language, government, economics, arts and math. Additionally, states must establish profi-
history, and geography. ciency tests to show yearly progress. The passing of
4.  U.S. students will be first in the world in math NCLB is nationally polarizing. NCLB supporters hail
and science. the law as the high point for the Bush administration,
5.  Every adult will be literate. while opponents argue the accountability measures of
6.  Every school will be free of drugs, alcohol, and NCLB reinforce the perception that children in poor
violence. urban communities are not able to achieve at the same
7.  Teachers will have access to professional devel- levels as suburban students.
opment. This stage of the reform era also ties educational
attainment to economic recovery (Chubb and Moe,
While commendable goals, questions arose about their 1990; Payne, 2008; Rothstein, 2004). Ormell (2012)
feasibility and the degree to which the goals were provides an argument that educational attainment
achievable by the year 2000. The comprehensive na- throughout the world has an impact on the global
ture of the goals pleased educators, but again lacked economy. He notes that “Education, properly con-
a connection to accountability. The passing of the No ceived, can do a lot to put the economy back on its
Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (U.S. Department of feet, to rebalance it, and to rebuild confidence in the
Education, 2012) brings the era of Pseudo Account- future” (p. 21). In previous decades, whenever the
ability to a close. economy experienced a negative downturn, a fairly
sustainable recovery followed. Recovery efforts from
previous decades relied heavily on manufacturing and
The Stage of Testing, Economic Reinvestment, and
labor-intensive work. Over the last five decades jobs
Globalization, 2003–2014
becoming increasingly more technical requiring more
The Stage of Testing, Economic Reinvestment, and advanced education, magnify the correlation between
Globalization provides an analysis of the last ten years education and job attainment. Leaders in urban com-
of policy development and the implications of those munities know that job creation is an essential key to
policies on urban communities and leadership. Consis- social, emotional, economic, and educational growth.
tent with the previous two stages, the period covering In addition to the responsibility of educating, train-
2003 through 2014 is characterized by the influence of ing, and producing workers for the American econ-
federal education policy on local and urban communi- omy, educational institutions must now engage the
ties (Darling-Hammond, 2010). This section addresses importance of retraining the adult workforce to meet
12    JUDY JACKSON MAY AND EUGENE SANDERS

the demands of shifting skill requirements. Zakaria LEADERSHIP LESSONS LEARNED OVER THE
(2011) believes that most of the high paying jobs as- LAST FIFTY YEARS OF SCHOOL REFORM
sociated with industries like automobile parts will not
likely return, and this certainly presents a different Reflecting on the research on the evolution of Ameri-
scenario from previous decades. Residents of urban can education over the last fifty years, there are les-
communities in the past could secure reasonably com- sons that may assist in creating a more successful path
fortable lifestyles through the automobile and related into the future. These lessons come from a unique
industries. The increase in educational requirements intersection of the authors’ experiences as academ-
combined with the reduction in inner-city economic ics and school leaders. As academics we hold great
reinvestment means that urban communities also re- deference to research and how it informs practice.
quire stronger emphasis on retraining of older work As practiced urban school leaders there is also great
forces. deference for on the job trial and error and seasoned
intuition. Krajewski (2005) explains that seasoned
urban leaders understand the tough path to effective
Impact of globalization school leadership, but in spite of the challenges they
Another key element of the Stage of Testing, Eco- find ways to lead—all of it done from the heart (para.
nomic Reinvestment, and Globalization centers on the 2). Outlined below are five overarching lessons from
impact of globalization on urban communities and an experiential perspective. It is the hope that these
leaders (Greene and Symonds, 2006). The connection lessons learned will provide food for thought in the
between increased accountability, economic reinvest- development of transformation plans to address urban
ment, and globalization factors requires educational district and community educational needs.
leaders to address educational management and strate-
gic planning with a more integrated approach. Semary, Lesson One: The Economic and Political Survival
Khaja, and Hamidou (2012) describe the context of the of the United States of America Is 100 Percent
global challenge in a dual manner, citing that educa- Contingent Upon the Creation of a National
tional systems have to meet the challenge of ensuring Wholesale Transformation Plan for Public Schools
that students have new knowledge relating to required Welcome to the Knowledge Economy. Public
skills and values, as well as creating responsible adults, schools are entering a phase of engaging in a global
who are good citizens both in their native country and marketplace where the new economy is the ability to
throughout the world. analyze, compute, synthesize, and provide technology-
The harsh reality is that globalization has a dra- based decisions in a fast-paced environment. It is crys-
matic impact on the quality of experiences for ur- tal clear that America is not the nation of a generation
ban communities, their schools, and leaders (Gertz, ago, and that globalization and technology now require
2010; Tyack and Cuban, 1995). “Over the past ten educators to teach, instruct, and manage curriculum in
to fifteen years, about four hundred million people a much different manner. The emphasis on Science,
from China, India, South Africa, Indonesia, and Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) makes it
elsewhere have entered the global labor force, offer- apparent that school leaders now must focus on their
ing services to make the same products Americans direct role in the maintaining and improving of the
make for a tenth of the price” (Zakaria, 2011, p. 2). American economy. In the twenty-first-century knowl-
The global impact also applies to the knowledge edge economy, educators must continue to internalize
economy of the twenty-first century. Hargreaves understand the direct correlation between classroom
(2003) describes the knowledge economy as one instruction and achievement. While the connection
“stimulated and driven by creativity and ingenuity” between teaching and the economy may not have
(p. 1). The participation of urban communities and dominated the periphery of educators in the past, the
schools in the knowledge economy will be critical twenty-first-century knowledge economy requires a
and vital to any long-term academic, educational, heightened degree of engagement on the part of school
and economic outcome. leaders. Educational leaders and policy makers must
 URBAN EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP   13

accept this new challenge, thereby ensuring the sur- lies somewhere in the middle. However, in the case of
vival of American society as we know it. public education, it is clear that since A Nation at Risk,
Transformation and reform is a learning process. there is a role the federal government can play, but if
The last fifty years of reform efforts in America failed this effort is to be successful, it cannot be the singular
to effectively communicate that the learning process leader in school transformation. Real and sustained
is extensive, and once a corrective effort is under transformation must occur at the local level and have
way, “blood sweat, and tears” will be shed to stay the federal financial and facilitation oversight. This diffi-
course. Federal and state policymakers are typically cult balance must be achieved, and the coordination of
adept at presenting charts and graphs that describe this effort will require a central emphasis on ensuring
“what” the problem is, but all too often, there is little to America’s greatness. We must view a national school
no detail about “how” it will be addressed and “who” transformation effort in the way in which we would
is ultimately responsible. And the ultimate question of view a national crisis. One of the enduring visual
reform complexity is what happens if the effort is not messages of World War II is the notion that everyone
successful? How can accountability be assured across was involved in the war effort. The classic picture of
the spectrum? The learning process has to be free of “Rosie the Riveter” defines the collective approach
political and stakeholder priority. It requires the lead- the entire nation took toward the threat to our national
ership team to create a culture of comfort from which security. The same kind of threat is upon us now, and
to continually communicate the priorities of the reform it will require the same spirit toward its resolution.
effort. Michael Fullan, an educational researcher and Political ideology cannot be the tail that wags
noted author on educational reform, has written exten- the dog in the discussion of school transformation.
sively about the time and the change process (Fullan, Every political official is elected on some change plat-
2009; Hargreaves and Fullan, 2012). Fullan and Harg- form or promise of delivering some citizen-based re-
reaves (2012) assert that effective management and at form. These officials then spend the majority of their
least five years are necessary for true comprehensive term attempting to either introduce the change that
reform. This means that the local politicians and com- distinguishes them from their predecessors or trying to
munity members looking for overnight success need get reelected. Reviewing thirty years of school reform
to understand that time and measurable benchmarks in America leads to at least one clear conclusion: po-
are key steps in the transformation process. The last litical ideology cannot be the cornerstone of decision
thirty years of reform efforts in America have been a making about our children and their success. If there is
series of stops and starts based upon variables as basic any issue that should require a bipartisan approach re-
as a change in leadership. Authentic transformation garding the overall well-being of our nation, it should
will require patience in the improvement process, but be education. If we take the collective approach that
America is capable of redirecting the current education our nation has gone from being “at risk” to being “at
disposition and regaining the role as leader of the free crisis,” it would at least allow the dialogue focusing
world. on students and the survival of our nation. The reality
The federal government cannot be the singular is that for far too long politicians have used all of the
leader in wholesale school transformation. Over the appropriate verbiage about the importance of educa-
last thirty years of school reform, there is an ongoing tion, but have been all too willing to compromise in
debate about the role of the federal government in our the backroom for a deal that has a higher personal
daily lives. The Democratic Party has historically taken political value. There can be no more important or
the position that there is a significant role for govern- significant value to America than its children and the
ment in the social, economic, and governance of our success of our nation. Addressing political maneuver-
lives. The Republican Party has historically taken a ing means that elected officials will often have to risk
position that there is little to no role the government angering a constituency that demands a different set
should play in our daily decision making, whether it of priorities.
be schools or other institutional decision making. As The last three and a half years of politics in Wash-
is the case with most political debates, the true answer ington yields some of the most divisive and partisan
14    JUDY JACKSON MAY AND EUGENE SANDERS

bickering in recent memory. One need not look further recommendation here is that all school plans should
than the debate on the income debt ceiling to see that be properly vetted with as much community feedback
there is enough “my way or the highway” thinking as possible, but there is a point where the debate stops
leading us down the wrong path. While our elected and the plan starts. The question is often more about
representative government structure is the best in the who is doing the work than the work itself. School
world, we must also understand, appreciate, and value boards and political personalities spend an enormous
our children and their education as a key element of amount of time on the “who” of the work instead of the
our national agenda. There can be no higher priority “results” and “outcomes” of the work. When a trans-
than educating the next generation of Americans. formation plan is selected, stick with it. If new leader-
Utilizing technology must be a required compo- ship is hired, the core elements of the transformation
nent of all transformation plans. One of the ugly plan must be in place. New leadership can adjust and
truths about the role of technology in schools is that modify the plan as appropriate, but the anticipated
teachers are lagging behind in terms of knowledge and outcomes of the plan should not change.
competence about technology as compared to the stu- The Department of Education must be a facilita-
dents they teach. As a result, a significant portion of our tor of transformation and not the enforcer of rules
students are not being exposed to the power of technol- that don’t determine measurable outcomes. The
ogy, which in turn means we run the risk of being left Department of Education and the majority of state
behind by students of higher skill levels than those in education agencies may interpret their role in the trans-
other countries. A powerful transformation plan must formation process as the enforcer of rules. The compli-
include equal access to technology taught by educators ance role of agencies is important and needed to ensure
who can connect the relevance of contemporary tech- consistency within the rules of engagement. This is not
nology with classroom instructional models that meet an argument for a no-holds-barred kind of approach to
or exceed national and international standards. school management and change, but a call for redefin-
Select a transformation strategy that yields re- ing the role of the U.S. Federal Government. The first
sults and don’t change it. Transformation suggests a U.S. Department of Education was created in 1867 to
degree of systemic redesign. The authors of this chap- gather data to create an effective school system (U.S.
ter bring a unique perspective on this issue, because Department of Education, 2012). The current U.S. De-
both have experience as central office urban school partment of Education, since its inception in 1979 un-
leaders and higher education faculty members (super- der the Carter Administration (U.S. Department of Ed-
intendent, director of curriculum, and tenured profes- ucation, 2012), spends too much time checking to see if
sors). The goal is to merge both theory and practice in the form is completed in triplicate and not enough time
the leadership of urban schools and communities. providing flexibility to states to determine what works
After thoughtful and community-based involve- best in their community. Local education agencies
ment, a leader will want to launch a new plan. One of often desire a hands-off type of approach with access
the difficulties of this participative approach is that the to funds without scrutinizing oversight. From a federal
new leader is faced with questions such as: (a) why perspective, the role should be to facilitate and monitor
are we using a new plan and what happened to the old progress. The agreed-upon rules of engagement should
plan? (b) how much will the new plan cost and who not change, and the department’s role should be to help
will pay for it? (c) how collaborative will the board facilitate the local transformation effort.
of education be in the process? and (d) does this plan
have buy-in from the community? As you may imag-
Lesson Two: Comprehensive School Transformation
ine, these questions are followed by more questions
Will Be Difficult, Disruptive, Emotional, and
that can often delay the introduction and implementa-
Volatile. Be Prepared for Community Unrest When
tion of a transformation effort.
Implementing the Transformation Plan
One consistent theme of reform plans over the last
thirty years is that as soon as a strategy is unveiled, One of the areas that bring out an emotional reaction
there is often opposition to the plan components. The from parents, students, alumni, and the larger com-
 URBAN EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP   15

munity is a local school decision being made where cant financial investment by federal, state, and local
there is widespread disagreement. The reality is that entities and citizens. Expecting students and school
most local communities become fairly effective at districts to work miracles without sufficient funding
organizing neighborhood events. There are even local is ludicrous at best and uninformed at least. However,
block leaders who are responsible for keeping the block the other side of the argument is abundantly clear from
or area informed about key decisions impacting the thirty years of school reform, that supplying unprec-
community. These communities also understand that edented funds at the school challenge without proper
if they raise enough of a fight, and enlist some local authorization and oversight is a big mistake.
politicians, school decisions are often reversed, put on Economic Impact. The combination of persistent
hold, or ultimately passed on to the next administration and pervasive poverty and neighborhood decline leads
or completely shelved. The leadership team should to what Cuban (1989) defines as “the corrosive effects
prepare for negative reaction to the transformation plan of long-term poverty that has splintered families” (p.
and have a set of strategies in place to address unrest. 780). Sanders (1999) proposes a theory called circu-
Being prepared for community unrest is an important lar hopelessness and poverty. This theory suggests
take-away from thirty years of school reform. Leaders that underrepresented populations experience severe
should certainly not be callous in their public responses and consistently negative social interaction with the
or written communication, but should be consistent unspoken and unwritten social norms associated with
with their plan, and all members of the school commu- business and career opportunities, and the (a) legal
nity should be able to speak to why the plan is being system, (b) financial system, (c) political system, (d)
implemented and what the benefits will be for each health care system, and (e) social services system, that
stakeholder group. ultimately results in a severe feeling of hopelessness
Listen and modify transformation plans based that becomes cyclical” (p. 7). Consistent and persis-
on input from the local community that fits the tent negative interaction and discrimination within
rubric for decision-making framework. A national the societal systems in which one is dependent for life
transformation plan that impacts a local community causes stress leading to other chronic issues. Devine,
must be flexible enough to include ongoing feedback Plunkett, and Wright (1992) suggest that chronic
by community members. A high level of transparency stress caused by economic deprivation has a signifi-
is required at all times. In most communities, there cant impact on urban communities and the children
will be a significant debate or differences based on of poverty. “Poverty in and of itself does not lead to
philosophy, background, and experiences, or disagree- poor cognitive ability, but rather causes the stress-
ments over research-based strategies. Regardless of ful reaction that accompanies it” (Neel, 2013, p. 42).
the degree of differences about the key elements of the Moreover, Neel describes a “feedback loop” where
transformation plan, school and community leaders the deeper the family poverty, the more chronically ill
must be willing to listen and modify when it is neces- the members become, and the more chronically ill the
sary. A “rubric for decision-making” must be estab- members become, the more likely the children are to
lished, even in the midst of dissention, to ensure that perform poorly in school and also grow up in poverty
all the key requirements and guidelines for the trans- (p. 43).
formation plan are maintained. While you can bet on An economic-based incentive for parents must be
spirited debate and a degree of political leveraging, the a part of a federal effort toward wholesale school
ultimate decision must require the input of all groups reform. It’s time to start compensating parents for the
and citizens and be in the best interest of the children. academic achievement of their children. This idea is
controversial, and some critics will consider it yet an-
other form of social welfare. The critics should look at
Lesson Three: Money, In and By Itself, Is Not the
compensating parents for ensuring high achievement
Total Solution to Successful School Transformation
for their children similar to the way we look at farm
Let’s be very clear on this point. Wholesale school subsidies, Wall Street buyouts, incentives for first-
transformation will not be successful without a signifi- time homeowners, the alternative minimum tax, and
16    JUDY JACKSON MAY AND EUGENE SANDERS

National Science Foundation Grants. There is a need of collective accountability, it is clear that the essence
for a national effort focusing on educating our children of the work over the thirty-year period of school re-
and placing a financial priority on that challenge. This form fails to identify, not just accountability, but the
effort should either be a direct pay to parents or a key need to have all stakeholders vested in the outcome.
school agency of which the child directly benefits. There have been discussions about merit pay, closing
This finance-based support to parents for achievement low performing buildings, differentiated compensa-
should be a national priority, especially if we are seri- tion, and other innovative approaches to reward edu-
ous about education and ensuring that America com- cators, but the true call for authentic transformation of
petes in the twenty-first century. schools is the collective buy-in as well as the collective
Make investments in targeted communities accountability for the group. Previous reform efforts
where the need is the greatest and reward success include many key variables that can lead to success,
nationwide regardless of socio-economic condi- but one of the reasons the overall achievement level
tion. There is always a debate in schools concerning of students is not successful is that there was not suf-
whether all students should receive the same economic ficient buy-in and accountability. A national transfor-
support regardless of their socio-economic status. The mation plan requires not just buy-in, but individual
investment component of a national transformation accountability as well. If the individual building does
plan should include an emphasis on those schools and not meet their goal, then all members of the school are
communities that are uniquely disadvantaged by pov- held accountable, not just the school administration
erty, poor medical care, and difficult socio-economic and/or union leadership.
factors. As a result, economic investment should be
increased to students and communities based on their Lesson Five: Ensure Sustainability of the
need. A national transformation plan should be com- Transformation Plan by Institutionalizing and
prehensive enough to include all students and place Creating a “Sense of Urgency” for Implementation
the onus of responsibility on students and families to
While the federal government can provide financial
succeed.
support for transformation plans, the ultimate cost
must be placed upon the local community. Financial
Lesson Four: Failure to Successfully Accomplish provisions must be included for solid sustainability of a
the Goals of a National Transformation Plan Must transformation plan. Educators often talk about how to
Have Consequences for All Groups Within the sustain state and federal grant supported programs and
Educational Organization refer to it as the “funding cliff,” meaning the money
will run out, and there are often few strategies in place
Whether you are an athletic coach, a financial advi-
for the eventuality of the funding loss. There has be a
sor, a parent, a CEO, or the factory worker in a union-
relationship between funding, institutionalizing, and
ized auto shop, there is a common thread that will
creating what Kotter (1996) refers to as “establishing
lead to success for all individuals and people working
a sense of urgency” for sustaining the success that will
or being served by the organization. The commonly
occur (p.35). It is not the government’s role to pay
shared variable is that ALL members of the organiza-
for all of our educational needs. The local community
tion believe that the success of the group is contingent
must embrace both the need for financial support and
upon each member being totally vested in the attain-
the urgency for implementing a transformation plan.
ment of the group.
David Matthews (2006) indicates that one of the
reasons reform efforts fail is because there is no pub- URBAN SCHOOL LEADERSHIP
lic clarity on who is responsible for ensuring that the
initiative is carried out. This essentially summarizes Effective urban school leadership is a critical com-
the majority of the last thirty years of school reform. ponent of a successful school–community environ-
While more recent efforts under the American Rein- ment. Academic achievement of all students is the
vestment Recovery Act (2009) initiates stronger levels ultimate goal, but the pervasive impact of poverty
 URBAN EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP   17

and institutional structures creates steadfast barriers The initial introduction of the urban leader was born
proven difficult to overcome. Wilson (2011) notes that out of the need to address the growing political, social,
impoverished and underrepresented populations often economic, and economic context of a growing indus-
look to school leaders to provide support well beyond trialized America (Garrison, 2009). Globalization has
the traditional educational responsibilities. Peterson taken the place of industrialization, but the needs re-
(1994) writes that “for many students, schools provide main unchanged with the goal of sustaining a globally
the strongest, most enduring, and most systematic part competitive society.
of their educational world” (para. 4). As a result, there
is a unique relationship that exists between the urban
leader and the community. As the nation moves into SUMMARY
the age of globalization, we realize that we have not
yet measured up to ensuring even an adequate educa- An important component of the urban community is
tion for our most underprivileged youth. Urban school defined by the unique interrelationships between the
leaders, and the nation as a whole, understand that they culture, community, and schools. Strong and effec-
must improve their efforts, but Warren (2005) cites the tive leadership within these settings is paramount and
work of Rothstein, asserting that “it is patently unrea- requires an understanding of the cultural and social
sonable to expect that they alone can compensate for variables impacting the environment, and ultimately
the effects of poverty and racism” (p. 134). academic achievement. At the heart of urban school
History tells us that the advent of desegregation leadership is gaining validation for and creating ave-
resulted in the loss of the cultural support structures nues to overcome the fact that poverty and institutional
present in urban communities and neighborhood racism do indeed influence academic performance and
schools. Loss of significant school–community re- the path to success in our democratic society (Irvine,
lationships creates additional burdens on the urban 2007; Rothstein, 2004; Squires and Kubrin, 2006; Wil-
school leader to foster school climates supportive of son, 2011). Neither poverty nor racism should serve
student growth. Unlike other school leaders, urban as the parameters by which we define the potential of
leaders must ensure the creation of “authentic, con- a child, family, community, or race. Our “barometer”
textually sensitive school communities that welcome for success, writes Morris (1999), in light of desegre-
students and parents as equal participants into the gation, is the “quality of education received by low-
broader goal of learning and school success” (Wood- income African-American and minority students who
ruff, 1997, para. 8). Fostering culturally sensitive remain behind in predominantly African-American
practices on the part of educators who may not value schools in the inner cities” (p. 316). The Urban Eco-
their students’ cultural background is a challenge. nomic Development Working Group (1990) surmises
Many educators regard low-income minority students four conditions are necessary for the nation to remain
as “deficient” and their perceptions limit academic globally competitive: (1) an educated workforce, (2)
and social expectations that ultimately limits achieve- the availability of financial capital, (3) technological
ment (O’Connor and Fernandez, 2006). Addressing innovation and entrepreneurial talent, and (4) pub-
and eradicating these historical perceptual trends is lic infrastructure (1990). Success depends on urban
essential and requires dedicated leadership focusing school leaders’ ability to simultaneously managed
student abilities and potential. Kasinitz, Mollenkopf, these four conditions, while ensuring that society is not
Waters, and Holdaway (2008) note that developing permitted to shape student expectations based on the
and maintaining a positive school culture require influences of dominant social forces.
sustained and intentional strategies. According to Despite the pressure of the position, the Wallace
Peterson (1994), the foundation for change includes Foundation reports that school leaders treat the larger
a supportive professional culture promoting continu- environment as a source of opportunities as opposed to
ous renewal of instructional methods and curricular roadblocks and unreachable requirements (p. iv, n.d.).
offerings in an atmosphere of collegiality, trust, and This type of enthused, dedicated, and positive leader-
a shared mission (para. 1). ship will continue to be the hope for the future.
18    JUDY JACKSON MAY AND EUGENE SANDERS

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 CHAPTER 2

Sankofa
Leadership and the Twenty-First-Century Black Female School Superintendents
Judy A. Alston

INTRODUCTION (Alston, 1999, 2000; Jackson, 1999) faces the chal-

lenge of an outmoded, stymied system that while the
A by-product of the historic Brown decision of 1954 student body is diversifying, the teaching force contin-
was the decimation of the number of Black teachers ues to be very white and female and the administrative
and administrators in public schools. Ten years after force white and male. Furthermore, Brunner and Gro-
the ruling, the number of Black principals in the eleven gan (2007) stated, “the superintendency is one of the
Southern border states (Virginia, North Carolina, South most heavily white and masculine roles in our society”
Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Ala- (12). In the midst of this educational quagmire and
bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas) dropped with her feet firmly planted in the present, she has not
by 95 percent (Coursen, 1989). Now more than fifty forgotten her historical past as she endeavors to be a
years after Brown, there continues to be an ever- spirited tempered radical (Ngunjiri, 2006) embodying
shrinking number of African-American women in the Sankofa—an Akan word meaning, “We must go back
superintendency (Alston, 1999). In 1954, Toppo (2004) and reclaim our past so we can move forward; so we
noted that about 82,000 Black teachers were responsi- understand why and how we came to be who we are.”
ble for teaching as many as two million Black children, Prior to the 1954 Brown decision, approximately
and in the eleven years following Brown, more than eighty-two thousand Black teachers taught two mil-
38,000 Black teachers and administrators in seven- lion Black children who attended mostly segregated
teen Southern and border states lost their jobs. Many schools (Hudson and Holmes, 1994; Toppo, 2004). An
of these black teachers and administrators worked as unfortunate by-product of the historic Brown decision
Jeanes supervisors. For over sixty years, these master was the decimation of the number of Black teachers
teachers traveled throughout the South to provide edu- and administrators in public schools. In the segregated
cation and other related services to poor black children. Black schools of the South before the decision, Henig,
Eighty percent of these supervisors were Black women Hula, Orr, and Pedescleaux (1999) noted that Black
who were the precursors to the modern-day black fe- teachers and principals were important role models
male superintendent. The purpose of this chapter is to and respected leaders in their communities. Tillman
celebrate and reflect on the legacy of the Jeanes super- (2004) furthered that teaching was a noteworthy and
visors and provide lessons for the twenty-first-century important profession in the Black community and
African-American female superintendent. served as a primary leadership role, particularly for
Throughout history it has been evident that the black Black women (Ethridge, 1979; Foster, 1997; Yeakey,
female has pioneered new frontiers in education as Johnston, and Adkison, 1986). Even more pointedly,
leaders as well as participants (Rusher, 1996). In forg- Foster (1997) stated, “Of the 63,697 black teachers in
ing new paths, the modern-day twenty-first-century the United States in 1940, 46,381 were employed in
African-American female school superintendent faces the South” (p. xxv). Ten years after the 1954 ruling,
extraordinary challenges as a leader and a role model. the number of Black principals in the thirteen South-
This small cadre of black women educational leaders ern and border states dropped by 95 percent (Coursen,

21
22    JUDY A. ALSTON

Mazzarella, Jeffress, and Hadderman, 1989). Ad- and to improve black communities. These teachers be-
ditionally, more than thirty-eight thousand Black came known as Jeanes supervisors. According to Botsch
teachers and administrators in seventeen Southern and (1998), in a fateful meeting with Booker T. Washington,
border states lost their jobs. she asked Mr. Washington and a colleague from Hamp-
Many of these black teachers and administrators ton Institute to put together a board of trustees and to
were Jeanes supervisors. For over sixty years, these spend her money in the rural areas where most African
master teachers traveled throughout the South to Americans lived. She wanted to provide supervisors
provide education and other related services to poor for rural schools where they would serve as consultants
Black children. Eighty percent of these supervisors and assistants to the teachers, most of whom had little
were Black women who were the precursors to the training. Many of the Jeanes supervisors themselves at-
modern-day Black female superintendent. The purpose tended Tuskegee and Hampton Institutes for in-service
of this article is to celebrate and reflect on the legacy training for their jobs (Botsch, 1998).
of the Jeanes supervisors as well as to provide lessons To further the philosophy and work of the initial
for the twenty-first-century African-American female Jeanes fund, The Virginia Randolph Fund was created
superintendent. in 1937 to honor the first “Jeanes Teacher.” Born on
June 8, 1874, in Richmond, Virginia, Miss Randolph
HISTORICAL VIEW began teaching at the Old Mountain Road School in
Henrico County, Virginia, at the age of eighteen. She
Today’s black educators stand on the shoulders of initially became a teacher by the time she was sixteen
these master teachers and supervisors of the twentieth years old and taught in Goochland County, Virginia.
century. Before there was a black female superinten- Because of Randolph’s young age, her uncle had to
dent, there were the Jeanes teachers. When the Civil sign for her employment before she was given her
War ended, some provisions were made for educating school in Goochland (Jones, 1937). On October 26,
the children of freed slaves, as many white Northern- 1908, after having taught for eighteen years (sixteen at
ers who viewed education as the vehicle for not only Mountain Road Schools), Randolph was appointed the
industrial development, but also as a reuniting tool for first Jeanes Supervisor Industrial Teacher, providing
our country (Southern Education Foundation, 1998). the first formal in-service teacher training anywhere
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in Virginia for rural Black teachers. Her accomplish-
funds were established to provide money for the edu- ments included improving industrial skills, education
cation of destitute children (Peabody Education Fund, in general, in every one of the county’s rural schools
1867), African-American children (John F. Slater for Blacks. With no outline, formal plan, or curricu-
Fund, 1882), and African-American teachers. For the lum guide, she designed and fashioned industrial work
establishment and future direction of black education, and community self-help programs to meet specific
the latter were the most significant funds: The Negro needs of schools. In Randolph’s A Brief Report of the
Rural School Fund and The Virginia Randolph Fund Manual Training Work Done in the Colored Schools
(Alston and Jones, 2002). of Henrico County, Virginia for Session 1908–1909
Anna T. Jeanes, a Philadelphia Quaker philanthropist, (Jensen, 1981), she documented reports for each of
sought to improve community and school conditions for the twenty-three schools she visited, including the
rural African Americans. As one of ten children in a amount of industrial work done and in the general im-
wealthy family, she was a well-to-do single woman provements accomplished. One thousand copies of the
in the 1800s interested in the causes of her day. Since report were printed and mailed to county superinten-
none of her brothers and sisters left heirs, over time, she dents throughout the South. It was authorized for use
inherited a great deal of money. She donated her monies in other Virginia counties, and county superintendents
to charitable endeavors, and in 1907, shortly before she from all over the South requested additional informa-
died, she gave one $1 million for the creation of The Ne- tion regarding the Henrico Plan. Randolph’s teaching
gro Rural School Fund (a.k.a. the Anna T. Jeanes fund) techniques and philosophy were later adopted in Brit-
to hire black teachers as supervisors in black schools ain’s African colonies (Bude, 1983; Wallbank, 1938).
 SANKOFA    23

Soon, an influx of these supervising teachers be- on improving home conditions and other community
came prominent throughout the South. They were organizations (Kridel, 1992). Later the Jeanes supervi-
known as “supervising industrial teachers,” “Jeanes sors placed more emphasis on improvement of instruc-
supervising industrial teachers,” “Jeanes supervisors,” tion, introducing new teaching methods and curricula,
“Jeanes agents,” or “Jeanes teachers.” By the 1950s, and organizing in-service teacher training workshops
their titles changed to Jeanes curriculum directors. at African-American colleges. The Jeanes supervisors
Some of them were supervisors for an entire county; were increasingly called upon to serve in administra-
others were supervisors for only a part. Several county tive capacities as assistants to the County Superin-
school boards began to assist in the teachers’ efforts tendent of Schools (who were White males); they
by providing small grants to aid transportation. By became essentially de facto superintendents (Dale,
1909–1910, 129 Jeanes teachers were working in 130 1998; Jones, 1937). Like modern-day superintendents,
counties of thirteen states (Jones, 1937). The Jeanes the Jeanes supervisors served as negotiator, crisis-
teacher movement was so popular and successful with handler, resource allocation specialist, disseminator of
the African-American schools and communities that it information, staff developer, and personnel specialist
remained in place until 1968. (Cuban, 1988; Hallinger and Murphy, 1987). These
For sixty years, Jeanes teachers traveled to rural ar- Jeanes supervisors also undertook the role of atten-
eas in the South that had high populations of minorities dance officer, enrollment manager, record-keeper, and
to provide education and other related services. Botsch organizer of the countywide events for the counties to
(1998) notes that they were also active in other parts of which they were assigned. This involved regular visits
the nation and even beyond national borders, because to all schools and homes (Dale, 1998; Jones, 1937).
of the success of the Jeanes model. Additionally, an African-American female leaders were “helpful as
early experiment with Jeanes supervision in Liberia in teachers . . . not simply in the public schools . . . but in
the late 1920s but had to be terminated due to a yellow classes formed in neighborhoods that sorely need[ed]
fever epidemic. Later, however, the program would be this knowledge” (Loewenberg and Bogin, 1976, 300).
used as a model overseas with teachers who supervised
schools in Asia, Africa, the Virgin Islands, and Latin
BROWN DECISION: LIBERATION AND LIABILITY
America (Botsch, 1998).
Eighty percent of Jeanes supervisors were women
According to the Southern Education Foundation
(Guthrie-Jordan, 1990). African-American females
(SEF) (1998), when Brown was decided in 1954, there
were chosen during this time because they were “self-
were more than five hundred Jeanes supervisors work-
effacing, stimulating others to put forth their best ef-
ing in the South. However, due to the landmark deci-
fort rather than making . . . [themselves] too active or
sion, many of these teachers/supervisors lost their jobs
too prominent” (Brawley, 1971, 62); i.e., they were
because of the closing of schools and the reassigning
perceived to be less threatening. However, female
and outright firing of black teachers and principals.
Jeanes supervisors did face similar problems that
Moving up the educational organizational hierarchy,
working women have always faced and that African-
we find that there was only one Black woman super-
American women often face in their relationships with
intendent in 1954. Revere (1986) shares that Velma
white men—those being issues of power, gender, and
Ashley, an African-American woman, served as super-
race (Botsch, 1996; Smith, 1997).
intendent in Oklahoma from 1944 to 1956. Also, there
With no set guidelines for them and numerous
were fewer than a dozen Blacks classified as assistant
obstacles placed before them, these supervisors, them-
superintendents (Ethridge, 1979). To further illumi-
selves former teachers, did any and all things needed
nate this unfortunate result, Karpinski (2006) states:
as they sought to improve education for Blacks dur-
ing turbulent times (Dale, 1998; Kridel, 1992). These Desegregation resulted in the closing and consolida-
supervisors were initially hired to supervise African- tion of schools that created a job crisis that undermined
American teachers in the small rural schools for the status of Black educators who traditionally had
blacks; however, they also spent a great deal of time occupied a valued position in their communities and
24    JUDY A. ALSTON

who were often the bulwark of the middle class. In tored districts demoted at least 386 black principals,
particular, African-American principals were role wherein half of these individuals were made assistant
models and community leaders. Their removal from principals, though they were more qualified than their
the educational landscape or demotion from an es- White counterparts. Tillman (2004) noted that post-
teemed position affected not only these leaders as Brown job losses for Black educators can be attributed
individuals but also the children and the communities
to five factors:
they served. More than two generations of African-
American students have borne the consequences of
1.  Judges were confronted with the question of
this employment crisis, deprived of their example, and
inferior schools, and thus Black teachers were
subjected to treatment and policies that inadequately
embodied the principle of Brown. (238–239)
perceived to be inferior;
2.  Judges were reluctant to interfere with the seg-
Furthermore, with the desegregation came federally regated policies and practices of local school
funded programs that supplied schools with educa- boards;
tional specialists, such as directors of special programs, 3.  The courts had no experience responding to the
reading consultants, and instructional assistants—most kind of massive resistance to the Brown man-
of whom were White and not African American. There date to desegregate elementary and secondary
was no longer a proper “fit” or a proper place for the schools;
Jeanes teachers, the supervisors of African-American 4.  There was a lack of monitoring and a lack of ef-
schools and communities who were once perceived as fective data collection after the court orders; and
being the influential and powerful personalities in the 5.  Brown was more of a civil rights decision than an
local schools and communities. The majority of them education decision (Etheridge, 1979).
returned to classrooms as teachers. The mass firings
of Black educators were made easier because during Additionally between 1970 and 1971, $240,564,911 in
desegregation all-Black schools were usually closed salaries was lost after Black teachers in Southern states
down, making Black educators expendable even when were dismissed from their positions.
their credentials surpassed their White peers. The Na-
tional Education Association’s figures from this period TODAY’S BLACK FEMALE SCHOOL
show that 85 percent of minority teachers had college SUPERINTENDENTS
degrees compared with 75 percent of White teachers
(Echols, 2006). Unfortunately in 2015, Black female superintendent
In October 1956 the NEA ATA Joint Committee The is more of an oxymoron than ever. Arnez (1981)
New York Times (Fine, 1956) documented the dismissal and Revere (1986) noted that in 1978 the number of
of Black educators in several states. Karpinksi (2006) African-American female superintendents was five.
notes that in Texas, five thousand substandard White In 1982, there were eleven African-American female
teachers were employed although certified Black educa- superintendents, sixteen in 1983, twenty-nine in 1984,
tors were told to find other lines of work. This practice and twenty-five in 1985. Fast forward to 2010: the
continued, and the more Black administrators were American Association of School Administrator’s 2010
removed, they were replaced with uncertified and/or Study of the American Superintendency reported that
inexperienced White candidates in the newly integrated 24 percent of superintendents nationwide are women,
schools (Bell, 1976; Displacement, 1971). yet only 2 percent of these superintendencies were held
The years between 1954 and 1965 were the most by African Americans (Kowalski, McCord, Petersen,
devastating for Black teachers and principals for it was Young, and Ellerson, 2010). There was no reporting of
during this time that more than six thousand teachers the percentages of Black females holding the position
in the Southern and border states lost their positions of superintendent. A previous survey in 2003 (Brun-
(Ethridge, 1979). The Status of School Desegregation ner, Grogan, and Prince, 2003) reported that Black
in the South—1970 reported that demotions were far women held 4.4 percent of the superintendencies. The
more common. The majority (63 percent) of the moni- more things change, the more they remain the same.
 SANKOFA    25

While there are still few black women educational •  Do those served grow as people?
CEOs, those who do attain these positions are deter- •  Do they, while being served, become healthier,
mined to succeed not only for themselves, but also for wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely to
the children whom they serve. While they have been become servants?
viewed historically as the “messiah or scapegoat” for •  And what is the effect on the least privileged in
a school district (Scott, 1980), these spirited tempered society; will he or she benefit, or at least will he
radical servant leaders (Alston 2005; Alston and or she not be further deprived?
McClellan, 2011; Ngunjiri, 2006) stand tall as they
endeavor to make a better way for those whom they Social Activism
serve. They remain dogged in their quest regarding the
education of children of color. As one Black female Miss Randolph and the Jeanes supervisors and
superintendent in Jackson’s 1996 study stated, “I have another also set a blueprint of social action for future
to remain focused on the kids . . . ” (151). They may educational leaders. As vocational educators, they
be radical in their ideals (Alston, 2005) and sometimes taught simple industrial skills such as sewing, can-
action; yet they are tempered and becoming more re- ning, basketry, and woodworking. As development
fined as they work within the system of education that officers, they raised money for numerous building
we have in place—working to change it slowly from needs, school materials, and salary supplements. As
the inside. community activists, they held meetings, distributed
supplies, and generally promoted the welfare of the
African Americans in the school and in their larger
LESSONS LEARNED communities. As building architects and planners, they
promoted schemes for the building or renovating of
As a part of their survival instinct, many of these schools. As social workers, they visited homes in order
women have an unyielding faith and sense of spiritu- to enlist help from parents and to increase school atten-
ality that enables them to always strive toward excel- dance, fostered health talks to promote good hygiene
lence. Like her Jeanes predecessors, today’s Black and cleanliness. And as professional development ex-
female superintendent has a strong sense of spirituality perts, they introduced more effective ways of teaching
as her foundation. For many, this spirituality is the school subjects.
foundation from which they mount daily struggles Like another “Social Activist Servant Leader
(Reid-Merritt, 1996). From this underpinning they Mother,” Fannie Lou Hamer, today’s Black female
learned pivotal lessons of servant leadership and social superintendent fuels her work and passion by recog-
activism, which have aided them along their journey. nizing what Williams (1998) lays as foundation for
the work:
Servant Leadership
•  Selfless devotion to a task garners results.
Equipped with a strong sense of efficacy, these “Sister •  Intelligence is more than knowledge learned in
Servant Superintendents” are empowered and deeply school.
caring about their mission—to serve, lead, and educate •  Faith sustains hope in uncertain times.
children. Service is the greatest lesson learned from •  Inspiration should precede aspiration.
the Jeanes supervisors. Black female school superin- •  Smart leaders trust their inner voices.
tendents desire to serve and serve first and then lead •  Loyalty to the lowliest of followers is often most
(Greenleaf, 1991). As true servant leaders, they follow rewarding. (196–197)
the Jeanes design to “ . . . make(s) sure that other peo-
ple’s highest priority needs are being served” (7). They From this example of social action, today’s “Sister
also act on what they truly believe versus being under Servant Superintendent” is a culturally responsive
the influence of whatever the current culture may be. leader. She impacts the lives of those she leads by truly
As reflective practitioners, they also regulate them- making a difference for the culturally diverse students
selves via the Greenleaf’s servant leader litmus test: and families they serve (Johnson, 2006).
26    JUDY A. ALSTON

CONCLUSION Bell, Jr., D. A. (1976). Serving two masters: Integration ide-

als and client interests in school desegregation litigation.
As practitioners and personifiers of the ethic of care The Yale Law Journal, 85(4), 470–516
and justice, the twenty-first-century African-American Botsch, C. S. (1998). The Jeanes supervisors. www.usca.
female school superintendent stands firmly in a space edu/aasc/jeanes.htm.
that does not easily welcome her—an organization Brawley, B. G. (1971). Dr. Dillard of the Jeanes fund. Free-
that was not created with her or her children in mind. port, NY: Books for Library Press.
Brunner, C. C. and Grogan, M. (2007). Women leading
As the purveyor of care, she reflects the presence of
school systems: Uncommon roads to fulfillment. Lanham,
benevolence and compassion (Gilligan, 1982) that
MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
her Jeanes mother laid as the foundation for the work
Brunner, C. C., Grogan, M., and Prince, C. (2003). AASA
that must be done to see that students of color have an national survey of women in the superintendency and
opportunity to succeed in life, keeping and honoring central office: Preliminary results. Paper presented at the
education at their nucleus. As proponents for justice, annual conference of the American Educational Research
these women seek and practice fairness and impartial- Association, Chicago, IL.
ity (Kohlberg, 1984). They seek to provide a space Bude, U. (1983). The adaptation concept in British colonial
of democratic practice to combat the injustices of an education. Comparative Education, 19(3), 341–355.
unequal and unleveled educational field. As spirited Coursen, D., Mazzarella, J. A., Jeffress, L., and Hadder-
tempered radical servant leaders, their use of prophetic man, M. (1989). Two special cases: Women and Blacks.
pragmatism (Dantley, 2005; West, 1982) fuels them to In School leadership: Handbook for excellence, edited
move forward and themselves provide the shoulders by Stuart C. Smith and Philip K. Piele (pages 84–106).
Eugene, OR: ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Man-
for which the next generation will stand and realize
agement.
Sankofa.
Cuban, L., (1988). The managerial imperative and the prac-
tice of leadership in schools. Albany: State University of
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Glass, T. E., Björk, L., and Brunner. C. C. (2000). 2000 Loewenberg, B. J. and Bogin, R. (Eds.). (1976). Black
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 CHAPTER 3

Demographic and Professional Characteristics of

Urban School Principals in the United States
A Twenty-Year Trend Study
Jiangang Xia, Xingyuan Gao, and Jianping Shen

INTRODUCTION This challenge could be labeled as “leadership

with diversity” (Coleman, 2012, p. 592), meaning
This chapter examines the historic trends of urban that leadership should meet all individuals’ needs and
school principals’ demographic and professional char- benefit every individual and the organization as well.
acteristics. We inquired into that, during the past Ayman and Korabik (2010) suggested leaders should
twenty years, (a) how the diversity of urban principal- learn how their own leadership behaviors or leadership
ship has evolved with respect to principals’ gender styles are different from others, so that misunderstand-
and race/ethnicity, (b) how principals have been pre- ings in interacting could be avoided. Howard (2007,
pared with respect to their participation in the aspir- p. 17) suggested five steps for principals to transform
ing program, (c) how principals’ perspective of most themselves and their schools for the growing diversity
important educational goals has evolved, and (d) how of students as well as parents, including: (a) building
principals’ teaching experience before principalship trust, (b) engaging personal culture, (c) confronting
has evolved. Four sections were developed below, issues of social dominance and social justice, (d) trans-
which include (a) background, which is a brief review forming instructional practices, and (e) engaging the
around the four research questions above, (b) method- entire school community.
ology, which is an explanation of the data source and Another aspect of the challenge of growing diversity
analysis approach, (c) findings, and (d) conclusions could be labeled as “leadership for diversity” (Cole-
and discussions. man, 2012, p. 592), implying that the range of school
leaders should be increased in terms of race, ethnicity,
gender, and so on. Wegenke and Shen (2005) con-
BACKGROUND ducted a twelve-year trend study and more diversity
was found in the public school principalship in terms
Diversity of Urban School Principals
of gender, race, and ethnicity, particularly for urban
During the past twenty years, student demograph- schools.
ics have changed rapidly. According to Hernandez Having more minority or female principals clearly
(2008), the changes “are manifesting themselves in brought changes to the leadership in schools as well as
the classroom in unexpected ways and with breathtak- relationship in the communities. A study on Latino pa-
ing speed.” For instance, Maryland’s state population rental involvement argued that the minorities at school
was still majority white (58.2 percent) in 2010, but its administrative levels would have positive impact on
public schools were not—only 43 percent of students minority parents’ attitudes as well as parental involve-
were white (Maryland State Department of Education, ments; the study suggested that Latino parents would
2010). The changes are nationwide, and by 2020 half be 38 percent more involved if they think a Latino
of K–12 students will be minority. These demographic teacher or principal is important for the child’s educa-
changes of student population continue to challenge tion (Shah, 2009).
school principals with respect to their leadership capa- Although women are traditionally considered less
bility as related to diversity. effective leaders by society given the gender stereo-

28
 DEMOGRAPHIC AND PROFESSIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN SCHOOL PRINCIPALS    29

type and prejudice toward female leaders (e.g., Eagly Weindling (1990), the new secondary school head-
and Karau, 2002; Rudman and Fairchild, 2004), stud- teachers’ (as principals) average teaching experience
ies found that females can outperform males in instruc- is twenty years. However, U.S. principals seem to have
tional and administrative roles (Guramatunhu-Mudiwa less teaching experience: elementary school principals
and Bolt, 2012). Carless (1998) reported that female were found having an average teaching experience
leaders practice more transformational leadership be- of eleven years (Eberts and Stone, 1988), while high
haviors in teamwork, participatory decision-making, school principals were found having an average teach-
and interpersonal relationships. A meta-analysis of ing experience of 14.2 years (Brewer, 1993).
forty-five studies on leadership style conducted by Ea- Researchers have noticed that principals’ aver-
gly, Johannesen-Schmidt, and van Engen (2003) con- age teaching experience before being a principal is
firmed that women outperform their male counterparts changing. For instance, Rodriguez-Campos, Rincones-
in some areas of leadership, because women leaders Gomez, and Shen (2005) noticed that public school
can better encourage effective performance through principals’ teaching experience had slightly increased
transformational leadership as well as transactional between 1990–91 and 1999–2000, and they also
aspects of leadership in terms of rewarding subordi- noticed that during 1999–2000 the new principals
nates. Nevertheless, a fact noteworthy is that while the tend to have more teaching experience than that of
majority of the teaching profession are women, men experienced principals when they started principal-
still have been the prevalent gender in school admin- ship. However, the trend may have changed due to the
istrative positions (Baker, Punswick, and Belt, 2010; federal regulation of school performance. Since the
Nogay and Beebe, 1997). NCLB act was initiated in 2001, schools not meeting
adequate yearly progress were required to be restruc-
tured in various ways—replacing the principals and
Urban School Principals’ Teaching Experience
teachers, or reopening the school as charter schools,
Principals’ traditional role is the manager of school or closing the schools (see Maxwell, 2009; Mead,
operations. However, since the 1980s the role of in- 2007), both the leadership teams and teaching forces
structional leadership has been added to principals’ for underperforming schools may be radically changed
responsibility (e.g., Cross and Rice, 2000; Crow, Mat- (see Maxwell, 2009). As a result, the average teaching
thews, and McCleary, 1996; Shen, Rodriguez, and experience before principalship would probably have
Rincones, 2000; Shen et al., 2005; Stronge, 1993), and a drop due to NCLB.
principals are expected to be “instructional leaders”
(Beck and Murphy, 1993; Hallinger, 2005; Robinson,
Urban School Principals and
Lloyd, and Rowe, 2008). As a result, what could con-
the Aspiring Principal Program
tribute to principals’ instructional leadership attracts
more and more attention of both researchers and prac- Despite traditional university degree-granting pro-
titioners. As noticed by Hallinger, Bickman, and Davis grams for principalship, in the past two decades, the
(1996), many researchers believed that principals’ aspiring principal training program has emerged as
teaching experience prior to becoming a principal has an alternative for schools and districts to resolve the
a positive association with principals’ instructional shortage of qualified principals (Educational Research
leadership capacity (see Eberts and Stone, 1988; Service, 1998, 2000; Tracy and Weaver, 2000; We-
Glasman, 1984; Hallinger, 1983; Leithwood et al., genke, 2000). A survey by Tracy and Weaver (2000)
1990). For instance, principals’ teaching experience, indicated that participants had valuable experience
along with leadership experience, were found among through the aspiring program. In New York City,
the most important in explaining student achievement Corcoran, Schwartz, and Weinstein (2009) compared
(Eberts and Stone, 1988). principals who were from the aspiring program with
Many countries require a certain amount of teach- principals who were from traditional university pro-
ing experience before a person becomes a principal. grams; they found that principals who went through
For instance, in the United Kingdom, according to the aspiring program outperformed their counterparts
30    JIANGANG XIA, XINGYUAN GAO, AND JIANPING SHEN

who graduated from traditional university programs as academic and learning goals, among others (Bamburg
far as student achievement was concerned. Darling- and Andrews, 1991; Brewer, 1993; Heck, Marcou-
Hammond and her colleagues (2007) also noticed lides, and Lang, 1991).
that graduates from aspiring principal programs “felt Goodlad (1979, 1994, 2006) suggested three pos-
significantly better prepared for nearly every aspect of sible lenses that might be used to determine school
leadership practice” (p. 10). goals: (a) what schools are asked to do; (b) what
Daresh (1994) noticed aspiring principals tended to schools actually do; or (c) what schools ought to do.
emphasize the demonstration of technical skills, while Based on a review of the goals put forth by various
experienced principals regarded those skills as least state and local boards of education and special com-
important, and socialization skills as most important missions, Goodlad (1979) recommended twelve goals
from their points of view. A longitudinal study by for U.S. schools, and further, Goodlad (1979, 1984,
Fisher (2011) on self-efficacy of aspiring principals 1994a, 2006) categorized these twelve goals into four
from a two-year training program provided two in- broad categories: (a) academic goals, (b) vocational
teresting findings: first, before being principals them- goals, (c) social goals, and (d) personal goals. Shen’s
selves, teachers used to hold an assumption that instead (1997) empirical study using structural equation mod-
of pedagogical tasks, principals put most of their work eling confirmed these four dimensions.
on general managerial tasks or tasks pertaining to emo- John Dewey (1916) believed that social goals and
tion and interpersonal relationships. However, as they personal goals could exist harmoniously, while Shen
practiced with their coaches (i.e., actual principals in (1997) noticed that during the twentieth century, there
real school contexts), they realized that the main role was a tension between academic goals and vocational
of principals is associated with pedagogy. Second, the goals. Although in the history the educational goals
aspiring training program helped aspiring principals tend to swing between academic and vocational, and
change their understanding of “the tasks they are free between social and personal goals (Cuban, 1990;
to carry out based solely on their decision and the tasks Goodlad, 1994b), the situation may have been changed
that depend on external and distant factors” (p. 116). during the past twenty years. Since some important
For example, they realized that they could greatly educational reforms were initiated at both federal
influence most pedagogy-related tasks, but for many level (e.g., Goals 2000: Educate America Act passed
general managerial tasks, they cannot fully control and in 1994 and No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2001)
need support from the school staff and the community. and state level (e.g., all states have established ac-
Rodriguez-Campos, Rincones-Gomez, and Shen countability systems since the 1990s), emphasis on ac-
(2005) reported that an increasing trend for principals ademic goals has become a predominant phenomenon
to take part in the aspiring programs based on Schools since the 1990s (Shen, Palmer, and Crawford, 2005).
and Staffing Survey public principal data from 1990– No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), passed by
91 to 1999–2000. It will be interesting to see whether Congress in 2001, has brought new dynamics to edu-
the trend continues since 1999–2000. cational goals. NCLB’s dominant goals are to improve
“academic proficiency” and reduce “achievement gap”
(see Ratner, 2007), toward which federal government
Principals’ Perception on Educational Goals
and states hold districts and schools accountable for
Researchers have already noticed that one dimen- Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) with standardized
sion of principal leadership, principals’ role in framing tests. This results in more and more emphasis on
school goals, has indirect but significant effects on students’ academic achievements. For example, re-
student achievement (see Robinson, Lloyd, and Rowe, searchers found that NCLB shifted the allocation of
2008), and has more influence on school effectiveness instructional time toward math and reading (Dee and
than the emphases of traditional areas do (Goldring Jacob, 2010). The shift of school goals toward aca-
and Pasternack, 1994). As reviewed by Robinson et al. demic was also observed. Based on Goodlad’s twelve
(2008), researchers found that leadership made a dif- proposed educational goals, Potthoff and Walker
ference in student achievements through setting clear (2009) surveyed five groups of individuals including
 DEMOGRAPHIC AND PROFESSIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN SCHOOL PRINCIPALS    31

(a) K–12 educators, (b) teaching candidates, (c) uni- (SASS), which is the largest survey of K–12 educa-
versity faculty, (d) K–12 parents, and (e) local K–12 tion collected by the National Center for Educational
school board members. Their study confirmed Good- Statistics (NCES). SASS data have four essential com-
lad’s categorization of school goals, and also found ponents: teacher data, principal data, school data, and
that overall the two most highly rated and ranked goals district data. Until 2012, NCES has already conducted
were “mastery of basic skills/fundamental processes” seven cycles of surveys: 1987–1988, 1990–1991,
and “intellectual development.” It is interesting to ex- 1993–1994, 1999–2000, 2003–2004, 2007–2008, and
amine whether and how school principals’ perception 2011–2012. However, data of SASS 2011–2012 are
of most important educational goals changed during still not available at this point. As a result, this chapter
the past twenty years. uses the data from 1987–1988 to 2007–2008 and, thus,
it is a twenty-year trend study. Specifically, the public
principal data are used for the purpose of inquiring into
Focused Inquiries
urban school principals’ demographic and professional
In this chapter we inquired into urban school princi- characteristics.
palship from five aspects:
Over the last twenty years,
Sample
a.  Whether urban school principalship has become
NCES applied stratified probability sampling design
more diversified in terms of race and ethnicity
to collect SASS data and ensure that the samples con-
given the predominance of the minority student
tain sufficient numbers for reliable estimates. Thus a
body in urban schools?
set of sampling weights were included in each data set.
b.  Whether urban school principalship has become
The actual achieved sample sizes and weighted sample
more diversified in terms of the gender given the
sizes for each of the six SASS principal data sets were
rhetoric on gender equity?
presented in Table 3.1. The sample sizes for all na-
c.  Whether urban school principals’ average teach-
tional public schools principals were also included for
ing experience before principalship has increased,
the purpose of possible comparisons.
remained the same, or decreased?
d.  Whether more and more urban school principals
have participated in the aspiring program?
Data Analysis Approach
e.  Whether urban school principals’ perception of
educational goals has changed? In order to investigate the trend of urban school
principals’ demographic and professional characteris-
tics, the analysis of descriptive statistics is applied to
METHODOLOGY
all six cycles of SASS public principal data, and the
sampling weights are utilized as well. The SASS data
Data Source
are national representative. Through using the sam-
The data we used for the book chapter are from the pling weights the results could be generalized to either
nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey the state or national level.

Table 3.1.   Actual and Weighted Sample Sizes of Urban and All Public Schools*

1987–88 1990–91 1993–94 1999–2000 2003–4 2007–8

Actual Urban 2,050 1,980 2,060 1,870 1,920 1,670
All 8,170 9,050 9,100 8,520 8,140 7,460
Weighted Urban 18,410 18,450 19,030 19,580 21,850 22,150
All 74,590 78,890 79,620 82,800 87,620 90,470

*All sample sizes are rounded to the nearest 10 per rules of using restricted data from National Center for Education
Statistics.
32    JIANGANG XIA, XINGYUAN GAO, AND JIANPING SHEN

Specifically, concerning urban school principals’ tion of minority principals showed that compared to all
race and ethnicity, we (a) computed urban schools’ public schools, urban schools had consistently higher
average percentages of minority principals, Hispanic percentages and more notable increase of Hispanic
principals, and African-American principals in dif- principals (see figure 3.2); compared to all public
ferent school years; (b) compared them to that of all schools, urban schools also presented consistently
public schools; and (c) did a state-by-state comparison higher percentages of African-American principals
of the change of urban schools’ average percentages (see figure 3.3), and a similar but more marked trend
of minority principals between 1987–88 and 2007–08. of changes—first an increase between 1987–1988 and
We applied a similar approach to all other character- 1999–2000, and a decrease thereafter.
istics: (a) the gender diversity—we focused on the Over the same twenty years, the change in percent-
percentages of female principals; (b) urban school age of principals who were minority varied greatly
principals’ average teaching experience before be- across states, with a majority of states having a higher
ing principals; (c) participation in aspiring principal percentage of minority principals and surprisingly a
programs; and (d) principals’ perception of most im- few states (including New Mexico, New Hampshire,
portant educational goals. For the last characteristics, etc.) having a lower percentage of minority principals
based on Goodlad’s categorization, before applying (see figure 3.4).
the analysis approach, the original eight educational
goals were condensed into four educational goals.
Gender Diversity

As to gender, the percentages of female principals

FINDINGS
were 35.3 percent in 1987–1988 and 60.9 percent in
2007–2008 for urban schools and 24.6 percent and
Race/Ethnicity
50.3 percent for all schools (figure 3.5). Therefore,
As to race and ethnicity, the results in figure 3.1 there has been a dramatic increase of female principals
show that over the past twenty years, compared to all for both urban and all schools over the twenty years,
public schools, urban schools held consistently higher and the percentage of female principals has been con-
percentages of minority principals, with both having sistently, significantly higher for urban schools than
an upward trend. Further examination of the composi- for all schools. Over the same twenty years, the change

Figure 3.1.   Percent of minority principals between 1987–1988 and 2007–2008

 DEMOGRAPHIC AND PROFESSIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN SCHOOL PRINCIPALS    33

Figure 3.2.   Percent of Hispanic principals between 1987–1988 and 2007–2008

in percentage of principals who were female varied for all schools (figure 3.7). Therefore, there has been
greatly across states; all states, except for Maryland, an increase of average years of teaching for princi-
having a higher percentage of female principals (with pals in both urban and all schools over the twenty
Kansas demonstrating an increase of more than 60 years. For the five time points between 1987–1988
percentage points) (figure 3.6). and 2003–2004, urban principals consistently had a
higher average of years of teaching than all princi-
pals, a trend that was reversed in 2007–2008. Over
Teaching Experience Before Principalship
the same twenty years, all states, except for Michi-
As far as teaching experience before principal- gan, Mississippi, and Rhode Island, had a higher
ship is concerned, the average years of teaching that average of teaching experience for urban principals,
principals had were 10.48 in 1987–1988 and 12.48 and the variation across the states for the change in
in 2007–2008 for urban schools and 9.77 and 12.65 the average was significant (figure 3.8).

Figure 3.3.   Percent of African-American principals between 1987–1988 and 2007–2008

 Figure 3.4.  The change in percentages of minority
principals in urban schools between 1987–1988 and
2007–2008 by state. *Note: These four states had 100
percent of white principals for both 1987–1988 and
2007–2008 school year.

Figure 3.5.   Percentage of female principals between 1987–88 and 2007–2008

 Figure 3.6.   The change in percentages of female prin-
cipals in urban schools between 1987–88 and 2007–08
by state

Figure 3.7.   Principals’ average teaching experience before principalship

36    JIANGANG XIA, XINGYUAN GAO, AND JIANPING SHEN

Figure 3.8.  The change in average years of

teaching before principalship for principals in ur-
ban schools between 1987–1988 and 2007–2008
by state

Participation in the Aspiring Program most states had a higher percentage of principals who
participated in the aspiring program (with Minnesota
As to participation in the aspiring program for prin-
demonstrating an increase of nearly 60 percentage
cipals, percentages of principals who participated in
points) (figure 3.10). It appears that both state policies
the aspiring program were 44.6 percent in 1987–1988
played a role.
and 61.6 percent in 2007–8 for urban schools and 35.8
percent and 56.0 percent for all schools (figure 3.9).
Therefore, there has been an increase of principals who
Educational Goals
went through the aspiring program for both urban and
all schools over the twenty years, and the percentage As to most important educational goals, the patterns
of principals who joined the aspiring program has been were similar for urban principals and all principals.
consistently, significantly higher for urban schools Over the twenty years, academic goals (based on origi-
than for all schools. Over the same twenty years, the nal “building basic literacy skills” and “encouraging
change in percentage of principals who participated academic excellent”) had seen an increase while per-
in the aspiring program varied greatly across states; sonal goals (“promoting personal growth” as phrased
Figure 3.9.   Percent of principals who participated in aspiring principal programs

Figure 3.10.  The change in percentages of ur-

ban school principals who participated in aspir-
ing principal programs between 1987–1988 and
2007–2008 by state. *Note: There were no data for
Vermont State for both 1987–1988 and 2007–2008.
38    JIANGANG XIA, XINGYUAN GAO, AND JIANPING SHEN

Figure 3.11.   Principals’ perception of the most important educational goal (urban)

on the survey) had witnessed a precipitous drop perience before principalship and participating in the
(figures 3.11 and 3.12). Furthermore, academic goals aspiring program), and their perception of educational
had been consistently rated as the most important edu- goals. In this section we summarize the findings first,
cational goals. The changes were consistent with the and then present conclusions.
recent educational policies which emphasize account-
ability primarily based on academic achievement.
Summary

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Race/ethnicity diversity. The data indicate that

although the public urban schools were still domi-
This chapter explores the historical trend of ur- nated by white principals, principals’ race/ethnicity
ban school principals’ demographic and professional diversity has been enhanced over the years. Although
characteristics. Based on the evidence from nationally the same trend exists as well for all public schools,
representative SASS data, some patterns emerged with urban schools consistently doubled the percentages of
respect to principals’ diversity (race/ethnicity and gen- minority principals in all schools across the six sur-
der), principals’ professional preparation (teaching ex- veys. Roza (2003) suggested that principals stay in the

Figure 3.12.   Principals’ perception of the most important goal (all)

 DEMOGRAPHIC AND PROFESSIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN SCHOOL PRINCIPALS    39

position longer when the majority of students in their 1988 and 2003–2004 for all public schools. A decrease
schools are of principals’ own ethnic group―which of teaching experience before principalship between
probably imply a situation that principals would have 1999–2000 and 2007–2008 was observed for urban
higher job satisfaction in a school of predominantly schools and between 2003–2004 and 2007–2008 for
same ethnicity―and given the general trend of con- all public schools as well. For the five time points
tinuing diversity along race/ethnicity at both national between 1987–1988 and 2003–2004, urban principals
level and urban level, we predict that the upward tra- consistently had a higher average of years of teaching
jectory for the percentage of minority principals would than all principals, a trend that was reversed in 2007–
remain unchanged in the near future. 2008. Given the fact that urban schools confront more
As for the state-by-state comparison of the change issues such as student poverty, behavior, and achieve-
of percentage of minority principals between 1987–88 ment, on the one hand, and the fact that the federal
and 2007–08, thirty-two states presented higher per- NCLB regulation sets the AYP requirements, on the
centages of minority principals. Although some states other hand, urban schools face more challenges and
indicated lower percentages of minority principals, urban school principals could be more likely to leave
many of them had already had a very high percentage or be replaced. As long as the accountability require-
of minority principals—close or over 50 percent. In ment still exists, this trend might continue.
places such as the District of Columbia, actually white Over the same twenty years, all states, except for
principals were the “minority” (98.4 percent minority Michigan, Mississippi, and Rhode Island, had a higher
principals during 1987–88 and 84.2 percent during average of teaching experience for urban principals;
2007–08 were minority). and the variation across the state for the change in the
Gender diversity. For urban schools, the percent- average was significant.
ages of female principals increased across the six Participation in the aspiring program. There has
surveys. The percentage of female principals was con- been an increase of principals who went through the
sistently higher than that of all public schools for all aspiring program for both urban and all schools across
six surveys. The principal teaching force has become the five surveys, and the percentage of principals who
more diversified over the years. Female principals are participated in the aspiring program has been consis-
found to have overall better campus accountability rat- tently, significantly higher for urban schools than for
ings than those of male principals (Roser, Brown, and all schools. The increasing participation in the aspiring
Kelsey, 2009). The trend that more and more females principalship program might be related to the lament
became principals could be related to the increasing that traditional university principal preparation pro-
pressure for accountability, particularly for urban grams are not adequate to prepare school principals,
schools, where accountability is regarded as the cen- particularly in terms of the new challenges posed by an
terpiece of school reform and restructuring (Darling- era of accountability (Hess and Kelly, 2005).
Hammond and Ascher, 1991; Hess, 1999). Over the same seventeen years, the change in per-
As for the state-by-state comparison of the change centage of principals who participated in the aspiring
of percentage of female principals between 1987–1988 program varied greatly across states; most states had a
and 2007–2008, all states except Maryland presented higher percentage of principals who participated in the
increased percentages. Although Maryland presented aspiring program, with examples including Minnesota
a decreased percentage of female principals, it only (with an increase of nearly 60 percentage points) and
dropped 2.1 percent from 60.4 percent during 1987– Michigan (with an increase of nearly 50 percentage
1988 to 58.3 percent during 2007–2008. points).
Teaching experience before principalship. The Perception of educational goals. As to most im-
data showed that there has been an increase of aver- portant educational goals, the patterns were similar for
age years of teaching for principals in both urban urban principals and all principals. Over the seventeen
and all schools over the twenty years. However, the years, academic goals (originally including “build-
increase was observed primarily between 1987–1988 ing basic literacy skills” and “encouraging academic
and 1999–2000 for urban schools, and between 1987– excellent” in the survey questionnaire) had seen an
40    JIANGANG XIA, XINGYUAN GAO, AND JIANPING SHEN

increase while personal goals (originally including Banks, J. A. (1999). Multicultural education in the new cen-
“promoting personal growth” and “promoting good tury. School Administrator, 56(5), 8–10.
work habits” in the survey questionnaire) had wit- Beck, L. G. and Murphy, J. (1993). Understanding the
nessed a precipitous drop. Furthermore, academic principalship: Metaphorical themes, 1920s–1990s. New
goals had been consistently rated as the most important York: Teachers College Press.
Brewer, D. J. (1993). Principals and student outcomes:
educational goals. As a result, the dynamics between
Evidence from US high schools. Economics of Education
academic and vocational goals, and between social and
Review, 12(4), 281–292.
personal goals, as have been observed in the history Carless, S. A. (1998). Gender differences in transforma-
(Cuban, 1990; Goodlad, 1994b; Shen, 1997), seems to tional leadership: An examination of superior, leader, and
have changed. Given the high pressure of accountabil- subordinate perspectives. Sex Roles, 39, 887–902.
ity requirement from both the federal and state levels, Coleman, M. (2012). Leadership and diversity. Educa-
the finding is not surprising. tional Management Administration & Leadership, 40(5),
592–609.
Corcoran, S., Schwartz, A., and Weinstein, M. (2009). The
CONCLUSION New York City aspiring principals program: A school
level evaluation. Retrieved from the New York Univer-
Based on the longitudinal and rich SASS data, in sity Steinhart School of Culture, Education and Human
this chapter we inquired into the evolution of urban Development website at steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/
uploads/003/852/APP.pdf.
school principals’ demographic and professional char-
Cross, C. T. and Rice, R. C. (2000). The role of the princi-
acteristics. The longitudinal analyses showed that over
pal as instructional leader in a standards-driven system.
the past twenty years, urban school principals’ race/ NASSP Bulletin, 84(620), 61–65.
ethnicity and gender diversity was notably enhanced. Crow, G. M., Matthews, L. J., and McCleary, L. E. (1996).
Urban school principals’ average teaching experience Leadership: A relevant and realistic role for principals.
before being principal presented an increase between Princeton, NJ: Eye on Education.
1987–1988 and 1999–2000, and a slight decrease Cuban, L. (1990). Reforming again, again, and again. Edu-
thereafter. A higher percentage of urban school prin- cational Researcher, 19(1), 3–13.
cipals participated in aspiring principal programs Daresh, J. C. (1994). Aspiring and practising princi-
between 1990–1991 and 2007–2008. In terms of the pals’ perceptions of critical skills for beginning lead-
most important educational goal, at urban schools, ers. Journal of Educational Administration, 32(3), 35.
more principals chose academic goals, and fewer se- doi:10.1108/09578239410063102.
lected personal goals, while very low percentages of Darling-Hammond, L. and Ascher, C., Columbia Univ.,
New York, NY. Teachers Coll. National Center for Re-
principals chose social goals and vocational goals as
structuring Education, Schools and Teaching, & ERIC
the most important goals. The urban principalship has
Clearinghouse on Urban Education, New York, NY
been evolving, indeed. (1991).  Creating accountability in big city school sys-
tems. Urban diversity series no. 102 ERIC Clearinghouse
on Urban Education, Teachers College, Box 40, Colum-
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 CHAPTER 4

An Interpretive History of Urban Education and

Leadership in Age of Perceived Racial Invisibility
Brian J. Boggs and Chris Dunbar

INTRODUCTION To begin, it is almost impossible to firmly separate

the influences of history on education from that of
Wallace Stevens poses an interesting question in his the influences of events on society at large. Often
poem, “The Man on the Dump.” He asks, “Where was what happens in our schools is the result of various
it one first heard of the truth?” He argues that it is, “The societal events. Rarely do schools produce an event
the.” He means this in terms of the use of the definite that comes to shape society first. Bowels and Gintis
article, “the.” It seems that when we use the word “the” (1976) acknowledge this phenomenon and discuss
we are signaling the definiteness, the certainty of a this in terms of social reproduction theory. Specifi-
statement or fact—its truth, as it were. However, that is cally, that schooling reinforce and reproduce already
not the purpose of this chapter. This is not “The History existing social structures, which means that the history
of Urban Education,” but rather, “An History of Urban of education can be thought of as a result of societal
Education”—in other words, it only highlights major movements. Bowles and Gintis state that, “Beneath the
turning points, but the story is never fully complete. façade of meritocracy lies a reality of an educational
It cannot be the ultimate truth, if there even is such a system geared toward the reproduction of economic
thing, but rather a connection of ideas and events that relations only partially explicable in terms of techni-
have had the appearance of leading to the current state cal requirements and efficiency standards” (1976, pg.
of existence. The story of humanity is often one-sided 103). In other words, it is about race and class. Bowels
and written by the powerful (hence having the ability and Gintis (1976) argue that the experience of school-
to portray themselves as the victors). And this one- ing is about socialization that reproduces class struc-
sidedness is no longer an acceptable practice in this tures. An example of this occurs in teaching practices.
century. In our effort to shed light on the influences of Lower-class students receive more basic instructional
the human condition that has led us to our current real- skills, and discipline is more of a focus. While upper-
ity, what follows is a social and political review of the class students are thought to think critically and ques-
history or evolution of urban education through a policy tion assumptions. However, these instances could not
lens. We provide a brief overview of the literature that occur if the students were not already grouped by class
illuminates the creation of urban communities and sub- and race. Staffing of schools also occurs in the same
sequent urban schools pre-Brown. We also examine the way. Various positions need to appear “egalitarian in
development of urban schools post-Brown, which will process and just in outcome,” but are only such in ap-
provide an overview of the multiple policies that have pearance (Bowels and Gintis, 1976, pg. 104). There
been imposed/implemented to address the educational are different rules and standards for different groups of
disparities that in many any instance, continue to ex- society, but the current manifestation of events just did
ist today. In this effort, we also discuss the perils and not happen. Rather it is the result of a series of socially
strengths urban leaders have and continue to face. In engineered events designed to control where people
particular, we focus on the formation of ghetto areas, lived, how they were educated, and what they were
civil rights and issues of poverty, the rise of school destined to do in society. All of this leads to the lens
choice, and racial invisibility. with which we examine the events of urban history.

43
44    BRIAN J. BOGGS AND CHRIS DUNBAR

FRAMEWORKS FOR HISTORICAL EXPLORATION: multiple goals and, as Deborah Stone demonstrates,
CRITICAL RACE THEORY AND POLICY are fraught with ambiguity (2002). This occurs when
groups unite behind particular goals or agendas that
In looking at the United States’s historical context of are unclear and they each construct their own under-
urban areas, we used critical race theory coupled with standing of what the policy means (2002). However,
policy analysis. Critical race theory “seeks to decloak what has happened in urban areas is not the result of
the seemingly race-neutral, and color-blind ways . . . a series of unfortunate accidents, but rather carefully
of constructing and administering race-based apprais- planned political, isolated maneuvers—a form of
als . . . of law, administrative policy, electoral politics social engineering. Even if there was a great deal of
. . . political discourse [and education]” (Denzin and ambiguity around urban policies, there still had to be
Lincoln, 2000, pg. 159). This lens “enacts an ethnic someone who knew that certain policy actions could
epistemology, arguing that ways of knowing and result in awful consequences to urban populations.
being are shaped by the individual’s standpoint, or Building on the idea of unintended consequences
position in the world” (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000, of policy, it is important to note that influence is often
pg. 159). transmitted through the environment in the form of
In other words, it acknowledges the fact that we can- policy. Noted sociologist Alejandro Portes explains
not divorce ourselves from ourselves to remove bias that it is because of our complex social relationships
and become completely objective. It is impossible to that any kind of policy implementation is difficult
walk away from the experiences that have shaped our (2000). So, where policy begins is not always repre-
view of and relationship to what we know. However, it sentative of where it ends or evidenced by its outward
is more than just realizing absolute objectivity does not stated purpose. This is often because policy is thought
exist; it is also about being able to “disrupt and chal- of in linear and rational relationships. However, his-
lenge the status quo” (Kincheloe and McLaren, 2000, tory has shown a consistent gap between reality and
pg. 279) and realizing that the west, in all of its out- theory, especially as it pertains to enacting policy.
wardly democratic ways, is not free of problems that However, it is important not to overlook the inten-
marginalize, dehumanize, and de-democratize citizens. tionality of evil. There have been generally unpleasant
The world is not as simple as blaming or crediting people, and will continue to be, throughout history,
fate for the turn of events. Instead, critical race theory who set out to marginalize and isolate groups and suc-
“rejects economic determinism and focuses on the me- ceed at their mission. There is also another element, in-
dia, culture, language, power, desire, critical enlight- stead of having good intentions and having unforeseen
enment, and critical emancipation” to examine why results (that could result in either positive or negative
the world exists as it does (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000, social change), or groups that set out to intentionally
pg 160). Critical race theory makes us ask the question inflect harm, there is a final group—a group encom-
of how we look at race. As Dunbar et al. state, “being passed with indifference; people who are apathetic
‘white’ is the unreflected-upon standard from which to the plight of others and what they perceive as not
all other racial identities vary” (2001, pg. 280). In affecting them directly. All of these groups and more
other words, white is normalized and is the backdrop come to influence relationships of power and policy.
to which all other races and cultures are juxtaposed. As a result, there is a link between critical race theory
This normalized white has affected all levels of soci- and policy formation in the urban historical context,
ety, including the interpretation of history, especially which could be thought of as critical policy analysis.
for minorities and urban populations.
This normalization of whiteness leads us to the role FORMATION OF URBAN AREAS
of policy. When thinking of policy, whether retrospec- TO 1950S GHETTOS
tively or in the present context, we should consider
what is the purpose of the policy? Keeping in mind When thinking about how we have reached this point in
that history of urban areas are filled with policy deci- our society’s development (the location of homes, busi-
sions, and policies can have multiple perspectives and nesses, and the distribution of people), it is important
 AN INTERPRETIVE HISTORY OF URBAN EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP    45

to reflect upon the history of events and the movements Well, a ghetto could also be classified as a total
(and restrictions) of people that have led to this point. institution. It is cut off from the rest of the known
This is especially important as we think about how world through a variety of ways. Cut off in so many
various races and classes of society have effectively respects that it is its own world and way of life.
controlled the development of other groups, including There is also almost always some form of barrier to
creating locations in large urban areas where African maintain containment of African Americans in these
Americans and people of lower socioeconomic class ghettos. In schools, it is the walls of the school, the
are isolated from other parts of society. However, this location of the institutions, and the societal values of
did not just happen. There was a several-decade pro- said school and community. In prisons, it is also the
cess that occurred to create ghettos. In point of fact, this walls, but also the guards, the guns, and we would be
is very timely as we reflect on the sesquicentennial of remiss if we did not also point out the societal values
the Civil War (1861–1865) because the roots of ghetto that keep people in prison through various power and
creation in urban areas as we know it can be traced authority relationships. Considering these elements
back to then. However, to understand ghetto formation, of institutional life, the ghetto is not different from
we must first ask ourselves what is a ghetto? these other institutions. One could argue that there
is the absence of an organizing system to a ghetto,
which would disqualify it from being a total institu-
Defining Ghettos
tion. However, despite the seemingly non-system
We always hear the term ghetto thrown about on that guides a ghetto, there are rules of interaction and
television and popular culture references in a variety of rules of association for its inhabitants, they are just
different ways—usually in the negative. However, we not always formalized or written. The system of the
never stop to think exactly about what the term means ghetto does not become apparent with the rules of the
and whom it directly affects. What is a ghetto? Who outside world until we look at what binds the ghetto
lives there and why? Defining it is not an essay task into a system. Oftentimes there are many physical
and explaining its significance is even more daunting. barriers that separate the urban ghettos from the rest
Originally, the term ghetto was used to describe an of the world.
area in a community where Jews were restricted and One such example is how Hirsch describes the sepa-
segregated. Today, ghettos are more often described as ration of Chicago. Many parts of the ghetto were sepa-
a large, continuous area that, as Foner and Garrity call rated from other parts of the city through large tracks
it, is “almost exclusively [comprised of] black resi- of industrial areas or railroad tracks (1998). While this
dences and institutional life” (1991). Unpacking this is not a brick wall or iron gate, it is hard and danger-
statement further, we realize that this is a form of isola- ous to pass through busy factory and foundry areas to
tion, especially given the use of the word institutional. connect back to the rest of society—it is a spatial and
In sociology, there is a term to describe such as a social barrier. Also, the train tracks created massive
phenomenon—a total institution. However, when a so- obstructions because these were not just single railed
ciologist uses these terms, they are generally referring areas where a train may or may not pass by during the
to one of two distinct institutions: schools or prisons. day, but multiple tracks with many rail yards that con-
That is because both of these institutions encompass nected to the industrial areas. That being said, trains
your entire being and it is very hard to remove yourself do two things really well. The first of which is they
from these collectives that isolate you from the rest of sit and do not move—forming a wall that is not really
world. When you go to school, you leave your family a permanent structure, but one that serves the same
behind and you are at school with others of your deter- purpose to isolate and block without the directness and
mined group (usually by age or grades in school), and political incorrectness of building a wall. The second
in prison there is absolutely no way out except death or is that trains move, which means they create an im-
release, and maybe the occasional breakout. Both are passable and lethal obstacle course to prevent certain
systems based on rules and order—marches, lines, and races and classes of people from interacting with the
endless population counting. rest of society.
46    BRIAN J. BOGGS AND CHRIS DUNBAR

In some cases, barriers were actual walls constructed is money to be made. Groups can inflate real-estate
to keep people separate. However, the municipal term prices to keep African Americans out, but also direct
for such obstructions is brumes. In Detroit, Sugrue them to certain neighborhoods to live, but the agents
describes the construction of the expressway system as can also make a profit out of white flight by selling
a method of isolation (2005). However, further isola- white homes to other black families. In essence, there
tion was not the only effect, but rather neighborhood were groups taking advantage of the situation, but at
devastation. Sugrue states that, the same time systematically maintaining the status
quo of segregation. Where you live matters.
Postwar highway and urban redevelopment projects
further exacerbated Detroit’s housing crisis, especially
for blacks. Detroit’s city planners promised that the Historical and Economic Development of Racism
proposed system of cross-city expressways would dra-
matically improve the city’s residential areas, as well It can be very difficult to ever pinpoint where or
as bolster the city’s economy. For the thousands of when something began to take shape because every-
blacks who lived in the path of Detroit’s first express- thing is a result of a complex series of events and
ways, both promises were false. (2005, pg. 47) relationships that build upon each other over time.
That being said, historian Kenneth Kusmer seems to
These expressways further isolated the residents of place special emphasis on the time period between
black communities and left behind a “‘no-man’s land’ 1870–1915 (1978). He calls this the formative years of
of deterioration and abandonment” (Sugrue, 2005, pg. the black ghetto. However, while this was a very key
47). However, these expressways allowed for middle- moment that has shaped segregation and urban areas
class working people to enter and leave the city with today, Kusmer paints a rosy picture of life before the
ease; they never had to traverse the ghetto on their way Civil War for African Americans in the North. One
to the office or their way back to suburbia. could get the impression that things were not that bad,
Aside from actual barriers, there are also many so- but we truly doubt that was ever the case. The mounds
cial barriers that keep African Americans in these total of historical evidence that have poured forth about
institutions of ghettos. The creation of the ghetto was living conditions and societal status of African Ameri-
also very much political. There were various forces cans and the condition of the modern day do not seem
at work, several of which were city governments that to support the idea that the races were ever treated
were only representative to a very select few. They equally even in the antebellum North.
believed that progress was good, but it had to be for In looking at the era between 1870–1915, it is impor-
the middle, voting class. Massive industrial projects tant to frame it within the historical events of the United
and residential building projects to separate classes States. The Civil War would be a very recent memory
would both keep their people at work and allow the by 1870, having only ended in 1865. This means much
elected officials to maintain their position of power of the country would still be in political, social, and
and authority. Along with local government, various economic upheaval and we would begin the era of Re-
businesses and businessmen have certain vested inter- construction, which would formally lasts until the elec-
ests both in real estate and other holdings to control tion of 1876. From this point on, the Civil War became
urban growth and the movements of people. Their goal romanticized as veterans and Civil War politicians be-
is keep their workforce and maintain their business cli- gan to pass away and the country began to move toward
entele, which means changes in demographics threaten industrialization. The industrialization was as much a
their bottom line. sign of the times in technological development as it was
Massey and Denton explain that it is about toler- about putting the nation back together after the Civil
ances (1993). They state that, “When a black family War. However, Kusmer argues that during this period
moves into a formerly all-white neighborhood, at least something happened in societal tensions. Specifically,
one white family’s tolerance threshold is exceeded, he states this was a “period of growing racial hostility
causing it to leave” (Massey and Denton, 1993, pg. [that] coincided with an era of dramatic change in the
96). In the chaos that the authors state exists, there patterns of urban life” (Kusmer, 1978, pg. 35).
 AN INTERPRETIVE HISTORY OF URBAN EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP    47

In reading Kenneth Kusmer (1978), he takes us Again, Clevelanders return to a policy of passive
back to the antebellum era with an opening reflec- avoidance. We are reminded of the quote by Edmund
tion on John Brown. Part of this is to frame the mood Burke, who said something along the lines of all it
of Clevelanders at the time; and, secondly to frame takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do noth-
his book: A Ghetto Takes Shape: Black Cleveland, ing, which is exactly what we see being demonstrated
1870–1930. Both of which can be described as show- by the newspapers of Cleveland in 1915. Well, this
ing a Cleveland that is not racist, but just has a series of comment adds a new spin to the interpretation of the
unfortunate racist events. However, we cannot have a average Clevelander in the antebellum era, the water is
place that is only anti-black when it suits them and one still very muddy.
that is progressive at other times. During this period As late as 1915 Cleveland, ghettos had not yet
of time, there were sharply divided social conflicts formed. One newspaper article of the time argued,
at work deep beneath the city’s surface. One such “‘We have no “Little Africa” in Cleveland,’ Robert
example is the conviction of two men for kidnapping Drake, a Negro Clerk, boasted in 1915. . . . ‘There
because they were returning two fugitive slaves and is not a single street in this city that is inhabited by
movements by Ohioans to allow slavery throughout nothing but Negroes’” (Kusmer, 1978, pg. 42). How-
the state (Kusmer, 1978). Both are critical to the devel- ever, African Americans were being pushed in certain
opment of the era, especially both happening in 1819. directions of the city. Specially “spread throughout the
However, a “chief hallmark of white opinion in eastern part of the city”; but that “does not mean that a
Cleveland was the desire to avoid sectional conflict” black ghetto existed in Cleveland” (Kusmer, 1978, pg.
(1978, pg. 6). To a large degree, Kusmer frames 42). By 1915, there was a push toward the eastside,
Clevelanders as pacifists. For example, it is expressed which began a process of isolation.
that Cleveland had an “ambivalent attitude [that] pre- However, we can deduce from Kusmer that these
vailed on the subject of slavery” (Kusmer, 1978, pg. urban ghettos, like Cleveland’s, started out as mostly
5). Then within the next breath, Kusmer also points downtowns or central city areas of what were in the
out that despite ambivalence, the supporters of the beginning very small and new settlements. That means
“antislavery cause did not necessarily also favor racial that these cities developed over decades, and in some
equality” (1978, pg. 7). So, while most were ambiva- cases a century or more, into large metropolitan areas
lent, there were those that did care about abolition but and are effectively the older cities relative to the major
did not favor equal rights. However, he then contin- regions of the country they are in today. More impor-
ues that, “In Cleveland, however, the two ideas were tantly, it demonstrates that like the long-term develop-
frequently conjoined [meaning antislavery and equal ment and redevelopment of these cities, the ghettos
rights], and militant abolitionists were almost always were not just created overnight, but are the product
in the forefront of the struggle for equal rights” (Kus- of lengthy movements to control African-American
mer, 1978, pg. 7). Kusmer argues that this ambiva- populations in both where they live and interact and
lence made Cleveland different from other northern through socioeconomic class. James Scott would call
cities. He states that, this a high modernist social engineering strategy to
control people through “urban planning.” However,
we must also ask ourselves, for whom was it planned?
The posture of the white press on the race issue,
However, why was there such growing racial hos-
though far from ideal, also helped keep down racial
tility? We argue that there always was—nothing re-
tensions in Cleveland. The progressive era was a
period of widespread and sometimes violent Negro- ally changed, except the way people were now living
phobia among white journalist. But while other white with one another and where they lived. In the years
newspapers in the northern and border . . . inflamed after the Civil War, African Americans were free to
racial hatreds with lurid stories of lynchings and black move about the country, and with little holding them
criminal activity, Cleveland’s two major dailies for in the Old South, there was opportunity in the North
the most part adopted a policy of ignoring the Negro. because of industrial expansion. Thus began what
(Kusmer, 1978, pg. 56) many historians term the Great Migration during the
48    BRIAN J. BOGGS AND CHRIS DUNBAR

early 1900s. However, we maintain that this term has dustries previously closed to them while white men
a major definitional flaw. The Great Migration looks were at war. However, soon after the war ended, many
at the movement of African Americans only as they African Americans found themselves without jobs
headed to the North for work; it does not examine the again, and matters only became worse as the county
fact that former poor Confederate whites, whose previ- faced the Great Depression. Massey and Denton argue
ous generation fought in the Civil War, moved to the that “The Great Depression of the 1930s ravaged the
North also. This moved much of the poor and resentful black communities of the north and quickly wiped out
Southern white class into large urban areas with large gains of prior decades” (1993, pg. 116). With that in
numbers of African Americans. On top of this, the mind, several authors (Massey and Denton, 1993; and
North could not get enough workers to fill the demand Sugrue, 2005) point out a relationship between hard
for manufacturing and also hired many European im- economic times and an increase in racism and racial
migrants. Large urban areas became a crucible of races tensions. Part of this is because of white pushback
and classes that previously had not lived together in against other groups in an effort to maintain their posi-
such close quarters. tion. However, another part of the equation is that,
Several authors argue that the new immigrants were
very territorial and formed “enclaves,” or neighbor- If racial segregation concentrates poverty in space, it
hoods of their own (Hirch, 1998; Kusmer, 1978; and also focuses and amplifies any change in the economic
Sugrue, 2005), which meant they excluded other races. situation of blacks. In a segregated environment, any
economic shock that causes a downward shift in the
However, one of the areas that the literature does not
distribution of black income will not only bring about
seem to cover is how race relations were in Europe
an increase in the poverty rate for the groups as a
with African Americans before the immigrants arrived
whole; it will also cause an increase in the geographic
here. We know race relations could not be great be- concentration of poverty. (Massey and Denton, 1993,
cause the etymology of “ghetto” is European in origin pg. 126)
and is where Jewish families were forced to live, but
that says nothing of African Americans. There is also So, in essence, because African Americans are con-
something problematic about the use of this terminol- fined as an underclass in a segregated location, then
ogy in describing urban areas. One example is the term small problems have vastly devastating effects. This
“enclaves” used by Hirsch (1998). He states that the means that it only would amplify the effects of the
“evolution of West Side black colony, from enclave Great Depression on the urban underclass.
to ghetto, was a post-World War II development” Before the dawn of World War II, the ghetto had
(Hirsch, 1998, pg. 3). As modern researchers describe reached an institutional point in American culture and
it, as a neighborhood becomes black, it becomes a was here to stay. Massey and Denton state, “Through-
ghetto. Massey and Denton also state something simi- out the United States—in both southern and northern
lar, by stating that “European . . . immigrant enclaves cities—the ghetto had become an enduring, permanent
. . . were in no way comparable to the black ghetto” feature of the residential structure of black community
(1993, pg. 32). The term “enclaves” was used to de- life by 1940, and over the next thirty years the spatial
scribe neighborhoods where white immigrants (many isolation of African Americans only increased” (1993,
of whom were poor) lived and that were homogeneous pg. 49). Looking back on what Kusmer stated about
by European ethnicity. However, whenever a black the formative years of the black ghetto being between
neighborhood is discussed, it is always discussed in 1870–1915, it only took twenty-five years to move the
terms of being a ghetto. ghetto and urban segregation from being formed to be-
By 1915, the new industrialized North was heavily ing an enduring part of urban life.
comprised of both Southern blacks and whites, mak- Following World War II, the United States expe-
ing very much the Old South in a new location with rienced a postwar economic boom (Sugrue, 2005).
confined urban quarters. By 1917, the United States This led to a Second Great Migration, especially to
was deeply embroiled in World War I, which allowed Detroit—as a result of the military-industrial complex;
many women and African Americans to work in in- however, the situation was different from the first
 AN INTERPRETIVE HISTORY OF URBAN EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP    49

Great Migration in the early 1900s. First, the attraction fabric. With this decision, the direction of educational
to the cities pulled in a different crowd. There were policy for African Americans was set.
not as many immigrants, but “Thousands of newcom- During this era, schools for African Americans
ers flooded the city, coming from places as diverse as were substandard, overcrowded, and primarily geared
rural Appalachia, depressed farm counties in central toward vocational training. African Americans were
Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, and the declining Black thought to be incapable of doing work beyond servitude
Belt regions of the Deep South” (Sugrue, 2005, pg. and manual labor. Nancy Neckerman (2009) points out
19). Second, any African Americans who moved to that recent immigrants of that period—many of whom
northern cities during this postwar economic boom spoke little English—were afforded opportunities to
were already moving into a segregated system of hous- enroll in courses that taught them English and that
ing and ghettos. Those who arrived and who were born prepared them to work in roles not afforded to blacks.
after 1945 only knew of the ghetto and did not watch Frequently, classes for blacks were overcrowded due
it form. to a lack of space, and in many instances, there was a
Many northern cities continued to grow until the shortage of teachers because some white teachers re-
1970s. During this time, there was increased interest fused to teach black students. As a result, classes were
put on urban planning and designing high modernist offered in shifts to accommodate black students. The
systems that favored business and white middle-class facilities were separate but obviously not equal.
workers, such as the expressway systems and new sub-
divisions that were constructed (Sugrue, 2005; Massey
BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION: TURNING
and Denton, 1993). However, in 1973, there was an
POINT FOR EDUCATION OR SIMPLY AN
economic recession, which caused black income lev- ILLUSION?
els to fall. As the recession increased in severity, the
worse racial relations became. There was much hostil- There were several court cases that challenged the sepa-
ity from lower- and middle-class whites, who were rate but equal doctrine (Hocutt v. Wilson, Henderson
“afraid of falling,” to use a sociologist’s term, into v. the United States, Murray v. Maryland), but it was
poverty. Much resentment developed when African Brown v. the Board of Education that struck it down.
Americans were still working and whites were laid off. Essentially, as Church and Sedlak argue, the “Plessy
This coupled with already strong segregation practices doctrine as it applied to schools by arguing that separate
meant, “By 1970, racial segregation in U.S. urban ar- schools were inherently unequal. Segregation in and of
eas was characterized [as] a largely black central city itself had a ‘detrimental effect’ on black children, the
surrounded by predominantly white suburbs” (Massey Court held, ‘for the policy of separating the races is usu-
and Denton, 1993, pg. 61). However, the Civil Rights ally interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro
Movement will come to define urban areas and Afri- group’” (1997, pg. 444). A new educational policy was
can Americans in ways not expected of that policy. set with the hope of providing equal opportunities for all
Americans, particularly black Americans.
EDUCATIONAL POLICY AND THE CREATION OF However, it was far from being that simple. After
SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL URBAN SCHOOLS multiple court cases to thwart the new policy, deseg-
regation was slowly implemented in school districts
As expounded upon earlier, separate black and white across the country but not without violence and the
communities necessarily (in most instances) create need for the National Guard to escort children and
separate and unequal education institutions. Ghetto adults to elementary, high school, and universities.
communities created ghetto schools. The Supreme Unfortunately, death was also a part of this history.
Court sanctioned this separation in its Plessy v. Fer- According to Hirsch, “As civil rights forces mobilized
guson decision in 1896, which held that separate but in the South and as the Brown v. the Board of Educa-
equal facilities did not violate the Fourteenth Amend- tion of Topeka, Kansas decision of 1954 was hailed
ment. For the next fifty plus years, racial segregation as a new beginning in race relations, Chicago moved
was a sanctioned and inextricable part of the American in the opposite direct by institutionalizing a greatly
50    BRIAN J. BOGGS AND CHRIS DUNBAR

enlarged black ghetto and turning away from the ideals tion also had unforeseen ramifications in desegrega-
that seemed so compelling during the fight against Na- tion, such as African-American teachers and principals
zism” (1998, pg. 215). Chicago was not the only one. losing their positions as black schools merged with
As Kentor and Brenzel observe, “as the Supreme Court white schools. Policy, as Portes argues, can start off
was mandating the dismantling of the old dual system with one goal, but the intervention of outside forces
of schooling, the transformation of space was creating transforms it mid-course into a different one (2000).
two new separate and unequal systems of schooling in A prime example comes from the writings of Church
many metropolitan areas: one mainly for low-income and Sedlak on “Changing Definitions of Equality of
children of color in the cities, the other largely for Educational Opportunity” (1976). As they outline the
middle-class children in the suburbs” (1992, pg. 284). changes in education from the 1950s to mid-1970s as
There were undoubtedly successes with efforts to a result of the Civil Rights Movement, we can see over
desegregate schools; however, integration for the most the course of time, various interventions—in the form
part was an illusion for many children. As Church of accountability and assessment—were placed on
and Sedlak argue, “the Brown decision should have schools. Part of this, especially during the War on Pov-
been a climax to decades of educational aspirations erty in the 1960s, is when assessments were used to see
among American blacks, proof that their tenacity had where students would be placed and then develop plans
paid off and that they had achieved parity. Instead, it for their improvement. However, partway into the War
turned out to be but another source of frustration for on Poverty, the emphasis began to shift (Church and
the black community and the beginning of a startling Sedlak, 1976). It started out to help the invisible poor,
rapid deterioration of the blacks’ faith in education’s which existed all through the country in various forms,
power to improve their lot” (1976, pg. 445). However, including both urban poor (mostly minorities in large
this change did not occur for several reasons, but cities) and rural poor (mostly poor whites of Appala-
probably the most disturbing had to do will, or lack chian areas). However, many of the rural areas were
thereof. It was clear that the “nation’s unwillingness to forgotten about in large-scale accountability pushes.
implement the Court’s demand for integration deeply Perhaps this is because large populations were easier
disappointed the blacks” and progressive Americans. to reform and implement accountability standards
As a result, “public schools in the northern cities grew with because disadvantaged individuals were already
more segregated, rather than less, as urban whites fled grouped in the same area, which meant easier access,
to the suburbs just as fast as, if not faster than, blacks rather than all across rural regions.
migrated to and within the cities” (Church and Sedlak, Many “public leaders and opinion makers de-
1976, pg. 446). This led to several conclusions about manded schools take a major part in achieving justice
the power of schools and court cases to make a differ- for the poor” (Church and Sedlak, 1976, pg. 433).
ence. Church and Sedlak summarize the aftermath of This is because “schooling in American has always at-
the Brown decision (before the civil rights movement) tracted those concerned with social problems because
best. They argue “the Brown decision did not lead to it promised to relieve the situation without in any way
widespread integration of white and black children; threatening to upset the current social structure”—pro-
rather, it precipitated a reaction that starkly revealed moting gradual change (Church and Sedlak, 1976, pg.
white revulsion at the prospect of sending their chil- 433). It was believed that education could be provided
dren to school with blacks. Such revulsion suggested cheaply for the disadvantaged without reducing the
that revisions in the statute books and in educational amount offered to everyone else, which could create
organization were unlikely to alter racial injustice as an equality of opportunity and shift the outcomes of
much as blacks had hoped” (1976, pg. 448). economically disadvantaged groups.
However, the War on Poverty slowly left Appa-
EQUATING POORNESS AND BLACKNESS: CIVIL lachia behind, and at some point, reforms began to
RIGHTS AND THE GREAT SOCIETY confuse poverty with blackness (Church and Sedlak,
1976). Part of this was because of the focus on urban
The quest for civil rights changed the entire direction areas where the poor were mostly African American.
of society and education. However, the policy inten- Thus, outside forces transformed the goal mid-course
 AN INTERPRETIVE HISTORY OF URBAN EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP    51

from a War on Poverty to a battle for racial equality itself (2010). He points to ancient Athens as a starting
between poor minorities in urban areas and the rest point, where there were marketplaces of sophists and
of the country. At a certain point, even support from philosophers, and each person who came into the mar-
liberals for racial equality began to erode because large ketplace was able to choose their school of thought.
sections of urban districts wanted more local control For the American context, it can really be traced
and a less centralized system, especially after books back to the eighteenth century with the writings of
like 110 Livingston Street came out in 1968, which Thomas Paine and the nineteenth century with the
outlined problems of bureaucracy within large districts writings of John Stuart Mills (Hess, 2010). To summa-
that made them inaccessible to parents. However, this rize, both of these influential individuals felt that the
put liberals at odds with local urban leaders because state should ensure that young people be given a basic
liberals saw large systems as the only way to get at education, but at the same time that this goal should be
universality (Church and Sedlak, 1976). It can be ar- advance through private arrangements. Arrangements
gued that as the goal of improving education for the that would meet the ends of the individuals whom they
poor moved through the political and educational en- served while at the same time satisfying the state’s
vironment, shifts and divergences occurred, equating aim of providing a basic education, which many have
poorness with blackness and a focus on urban areas. agreed is necessary in creating citizens who know their
rights and how government functions (Hess, 2010;
THE RISE OF CHOICE: FREIDMAN TO REAGAN Jacobsen, 2009).
However, until the progressive era and the emer-
The various educational policies prompting the idea gence of administrative progressives, there was rela-
of market-based choice and competition have steered tively autonomy in schools (Chubb and Moe, 1990),
much of the discussion in educational reform for the which did not hinder their functionality. The overly
last several years. Many supporters of choice reforms formal bureaucracy had not yet taken such hold as to
hope that a market-driven education will give our chil- hinder schools’ effectiveness to the degree of present
dren a competitive edge by better educating students day, which is one of the main problems choice advo-
based on their needs, especially in urban areas (Hess, cates hope to correct. The autonomy in this era pro-
2010). After the 1960s, choice and competition in edu- vided the funds for schools to operate and local control
cation made relatively little progress until Reagan’s provided the ability to operate within the community.
bid for president and the 1980s. However, this does not mean that everyone was served
It is problematic to argue with any certainty that equally, but it did provide greater access from the
education is completely a competitive market because community and a greater ability for the community to
it has not been historically. We also know that the impact what took place in the daily operations of their
current educational arena is codependent on govern- schools.
mental regulation. It is important to understand the his- Continuing in that same vein, choice today can
torical aspect of choice and competition. However, as really be traced back to the writings of economist
Maris Vinovskis would suggest, this is an examination Milton Friedman from the 1950s. He argued for a
to understand how we got to where we are, “rather than voucher system in education, a system that would
directly trying to inform current policymaking” on a limit the role of government to one of providing
course of action (2009, pg. 17). By understanding the funds and setting basic standards for approved edu-
past we can make informed decisions, but at the same cational institutions. He stated that, “A stable and
time not making the error of assuming the future will democratic society is impossible without a minimum
be representative of the past (Floden, 2007). degree of literacy and knowledge on the part of most
That being said, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly citizens and without widespread acceptance of some
where and when the ideas of choice and competition common set of values” (Friedman, 1962, pg. 86).
became the normal mantra in education because they However, at the same time he would allow parents
have so long been part of human society. After all, the right to choose which institutions would best
Fredrick Hess, educator and political scientist, argues serve the needs of their children (Hess, 2010; Fried-
that choice and competition are as old as civilization man, 1962). As Cusick would argue, this allows the
52    BRIAN J. BOGGS AND CHRIS DUNBAR

parents to have a greater capacity in the educational system because they are in fact created in the shadows
arena to have their voices heard because as it stands of that system and have adopted the same political
currently, they can be drowned out by unequal foot- process (Chubb and Moe, 1990).
ing among other competing interests for the school’s After the 1960s, choice and competition in educa-
attention, such as unions, textbook companies, and tion made relatively little progress until Reagan’s bid
other professional organizations, not to mention local for president and the 1980s. Reagan looked for support
and national politics, which are not always sympatric from four distinct, and some could argue incompatible,
to concerns of parents (Cusick, 1991). groups to promote educational marketplace competi-
Friedman’s hope was that this form of education tion. The first of these groups were disenfranchised
would promote equitable and efficient schooling, with Catholics, who had recently been dismayed by judicial
the hope that it would also eliminate class differences, assaults on school prayer (Hess, 2010). In addition,
which currently keep repeating themselves. By this, because of shifting resources, having less religious
we are referencing hegemonic reproduction theory, (people becoming priests, nuns, and brothers), Catho-
which holds that government is deeply involved in lic schools were beginning to use laypeople (non-reli-
the socializing of education and is controlled by the gious) to run schools. This meant they had to pay them
dominant group, the group in power, which can hold a living wage, as opposed to what they paid religious
other groups in place. In essence, the group in control orders to run schools. In essence, the cost was going
could keep lower classes and those who struggle in a up and they needed more funds to run their schools.
constant cycle of reaping the same setbacks or allow They hoped for financial assistance with parochial
the up-and-coming powerful to reach the potential of education.
where their groups places them. Choice and market The second group was really the major players
competition Friedman was hoping would break this of the Republican Party. They wanted to promote a
cycle by giving everyone a variety of different options market-friendly agenda, especially for business, and
not controled for by the state. many felt that schools should also be part of this
Friedman went on to argue that the desire for reform. To some degree, this group felt that market
government funding for education is not a desire for forces should be part of all institutions, public and
government ran education. In addition to freeing the private. The third group was the American Federation
students, it would also free up resources by allowing of Teachers and especially their leader, Al Shanker.
student demand to control the educational landscape, He had been pushing that charter schools would allow
instead of neighborhood effects and tying education to teachers to establish schools with her autonomy and
the housing market. After all, before choice, one went would allow schools to isolate themselves from district
to school where one lived and to change schools one bureaucracy. The final group was frustrated African-
had to sell one’s house and move. Better schools have American leaders who were looking for good and safe
almost universally held higher property values over schools. They had for sometime been stuck in horrible
lower performing schools (Hess, 2010). However, mismanaged schools, especially urban districts. More
that is not to say that schools are the only element that specifically, these four groups could agree with Rea-
contributes to reality markets. Reality markets, em- gan because of ambiguity of concept (Stone, 2002).
blematic of who lives where, can also be related to the They all saw something in his pro-choice agenda from
type of schools available to residents. which they could benefit, while at the same time hav-
Moving forward in time, the Johnson administration ing varying degrees of understanding of what choice
tried to implement a test case of Friedman’s idea with and competition meant for them.
a voucher program in Rock, California. It was run by However, of these four groups, Hess would argue
the newly created Office of Economic Opportunity that the most politically viable were the black urban
and failed wholeheartedly (Hess, 2010). Chubb and leaders. The argument of pro-competition then became
Moe would argue that its main reason for failure was not about markets, economic theories, and data, but
the excessive bureaucracy created by trying to manage a political and moral imperative. It became a politi-
the system. It is hard to free school from the political cal charge to help poor, black parents in urban areas
 AN INTERPRETIVE HISTORY OF URBAN EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP    53

experience the choice that suburban, mostly white, regation, a fleeting moment soon dissipated. When the
homeowners took for granted. Choice advocates began dust settled, the following data surfaced:
to push morality and choice as a venue for achieving
social justice, not deregulation and efficiency, which •  The most extreme levels of black-white school
are at the heart of market reforms (Hess, 2010). dissimilarity exist in the Chicago, New York,
For the public, this new view had profound effects Detroit, Boston, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh metro-
on the direction the choice movement would take. politan areas.
Being that educational competition began arguing •  The nation’s largest metropolitan areas report se-
morality, its advocates spent substantially less time vere school racial concentration. Half of the black
looking at the market-based aspect of education as students in the Chicago metro area, and one third
opposed to deregulators of energy, transportation, of black students in New York, attend apartheid
telecommunications, and even cable television (Hess, schools.
2010). In essence, competition in education, at least as
it exists since the 1980s, really has its foundations not
Desegregation to address education inequality doesn’t
in market data like every other form of deregulation,
seem to have made an indelible imprint on the lives of
but is founded on the idea of being a moral crusade. It
children most disenfranchised. Education in our nation
has only more recently with popular new approaches,
also began to come under scrutiny. Our educational
like the film Waiting for Superman, been using more
system began to fall behind other nations, which soon
social science research to argue for educational choice
prompted elected officials to create policy to improve
and competition.
education outcomes for the nation’s children.
However, we must give a word of caution as we
In 1983, A Nation at Risk was introduced to improve
move toward the future. An unchecked faith in open
the quality of education in the wake of the Cold War and
markets can have devastating effects if it does not
U.S.–Soviet space race. It proposed to challenge students
work as the advocates predict it will. Historian Di-
by raising standards and expectations. It also sought
ane Ravitch states that schools embrace reforms,
to promote a “free (education) market system.” Goals
like choice and competition, all too quickly (2010).
2000, another of several education policies, proposed
She goes on to state the “lure of the market is the
that states be held accountable for education outcomes;
idea that freedom from government regulations is
high stakes testing was implemented and again called for
the solution all by itself . . . this is very appealing,
higher standards. Clearly, this was an educational move-
. . . [but] . . . education is too important to relinquish
ment that caught the attention of supporters who decided
to vagaries of markets and the good intention of arma-
that education had to improve for the nation’s children.
tures” (2010, pg. 11).
Oddly enough, there was not a great deal of at-
tention placed on educational outcomes for minority
RESULTS OF URBAN EDUCATION POLICY students in particular until No Child Left Behind and,
subsequently, Race to the Top when national attention
Today, many black students continue to struggle was drawn to the racial achievement gap. The gap did
despite nearly sixty years post-Brown. The struggle not simply appear out of thin air, but the persistent gap
continues for equal educational opportunities, which had garnered public attention. Teachers are being held
many believed would be addressed with desegregation accountable for student academic growth, rewards
of schools. However, segregated classrooms in deseg- and other incentives are being dangled at districts and
regated schools was not the solution. Scholars argue teachers, as well as threats to dismantle schools and
that there was a period when school integration was at districts that do not make adequate yearly progress
its highest point in the 1970s, but has steadily retreated with particular emphasis placed on low-achieving mi-
to its pre-Brown conditions (Crain et al., 1997). nority students. District takeovers, emergency manag-
A recent civil rights project at UCLA (2012) reports ers, and pink slips distributed to teachers have become
that school segregation is sharply increasing not only a significant part of the landscape for urban school
by race but also around economics and class. Deseg- districts and the children who attend these schools.
54    BRIAN J. BOGGS AND CHRIS DUNBAR

THE GHOSTLY HAND OF SOCIAL as it then existed but in a greatly augmented form—
ENGINEERING—CREATING AN AMERICAN would have to be enlisted in their aid” (Hirsch, 1998,
UNDERCLASS pg. 213). This means that those with power, money,
In thinking about the history of urbanization and and resources had to affect the political system and
ghetto formation, several trends seem to develop control it to oppress African Americans. Beyond gov-
across history. Most important is to think of it in the ernmental control, there was always the looming and
terms that Massey and Denton use—an American often actual use of violence to effectuate change that
apartheid. However, in the text, they never really give government manipulation could not accomplish.
a complete definition of what an apartheid is. So, with While all these items added to creating ghettos,
that in mind, an apartheid by law is, “Defined by the Massey and Denton present a more abstract, but very
2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court exact and systematic, method of how to create an ur-
as inhumane acts of a character similar to other crimes ban underclass. They state that the creators, whoever
against humanity ‘committed in the context of an they may be, must start by choosing “a minority group
institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and whose members are somehow identifiably different
domination by one racial group over any other racial from the majority” (1993, pg. 182). By doing this, the
group or groups and committed with the intention of oppressors can always find them anywhere and any-
maintaining that regime.’” time to control the group’s movements. From here it is
While we think that truly applies to American so- necessary to separate the members, in this case African
ciety in terms of African Americans, we are not sure Americans, from everyone else by forcing them into se-
it is that organized. We do not think that there is a lect areas and any “attempt to leave the enclave is sys-
formal organization, as the definition would imply, tematically steered away from majority neighborhoods
in American society that is systematically oppressing and back to minority or racially mixed areas” (Massey
people, but rather it is a series of informal relationships and Denton, 1993, pg. 182). This means there must
situated in a loosely coupled system. By this we mean be informal alliances in the case of the United States,
the system is driven by irrational hate in rational ways where such practices are illegal, to steer people in the
through informal alliances to keep certain people in segregated direction. To aid in this, it is necessary to
certain places while at the same time what these power also control the movement and lending of money. It is
players are doing is both increasing racism, creating important to remember the golden rule—he who has
an urban underclass, and in some ways profiting from the gold makes the rules. However, there are always
it. After all, rational systems that carry out tasks by those who will resist, perhaps on both sides, and for
definition function in a logical and hierarchical way, them, it is necessary to harass them and, if that does
but that does not mean that the motives and reasons not work, then it is necessary to escalate to violence.
for the rational system, in this case hatred, have to be After all, those who are in charge have the ability to do
logical or sane. violence to maintain their order.
Looking at Hirsch and forming the second ghetto, From here, “Once a group’s segregation in society
he describes it as a “sequence of events [that] clearly has been ensured, the next step in building an under-
demonstrated the combination of forces that pro- class is to drive up the rate of poverty” (Massey and
duced” it (1998, pg. 213). Specifically, he states that Denton, 1993, pg. 183). However, this poverty and
the major forces included large “downtown interests segregation then becomes political power. Massey
and . . . powerful institutions . . . found themselves and Denton go on to state that, “Geographic isolation
confronted, after the war, with threats to their survival translates into political isolation, making it difficult
that were beyond even their considerable means of for segregated groups to form political coalitions with
control” (Hirsch, 1998, pg. 213). These interests were others to end policies inimical to their self-interests or
in fear of the white clientele reaching tolerance levels, to promote policies that might advance their welfare”
or intolerance levels, of African Americans and leav- (1993, pg. 183). The final tactic to create an urban
ing. However, these organizations could not leave the underclass is “to set off a spiral of decay within the
city: “They realized that the power of the state—not ghetto . . . [with] . . . a first-class economic disaster that
 AN INTERPRETIVE HISTORY OF URBAN EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP    55

removed the means of subsistence from a large share However, what started this shift? Many of these argu-
of the population” (1993, pg. 183). As we discussed ments are a result of the election of President Obama.
before, economic recessions are always worse in poor, A recent issue of the Peabody Journal of Education
isolated areas. This then creates a circular and repeti- stated in the introduction to their post-racialism edi-
tive system from which the urban underclass cannot tion that,
escape until it becomes part of institutional life, and af-
ter a generation or so, it is just accepted as how things Many presupposed that the mere election of the first
are. All this means that, “Given the lack of opportu- president of color erased the pervasive and insti-
nity, pervasive poverty, and increasing hopelessness tutionalized racism that has historically oppressed
Americans of color since the creation of the nation.
of life in the ghetto, a social-psychological dynamic is
This framing has resulted in the solidification of a de-
set in motion to produce a culture of segregation . . .
contextualized and de-raced analysis of some of the
[and] . . . as new generation are born into conditions
most important economic and social issues and poli-
of increasing deprivation and deepening racial isola- cies of the last several generations (Aleman, Salazar,
tion” (Massey and Denton, 1993, pg. 184). Once this Rorrer, and Parker, 2011)
happens, it becomes hard to leave because a different
culture and even language can be created that separates We would agree with these authors and argue the
the urban underclass from the rest of humanity. inverse of what many people, especially the media
However, the goal has not been to create ghettos; who championed America to be post-racial on elec-
they are a by-product, a side effect of the treatment. tion night, are saying about the election of President
So, what is the treatment? Many would argue that it is Obama. While it was historical that he was elected,
segregation and racism, but again, these are mere tools it did not solve anything. This type of “post-racial”
to achieve the goal. The end goal is really to create rhetoric has lauded parts of society into a false sense
an urban underclass that is isolated and subjugated by of complacency; this “rhetoric of color-blindness pres-
higher classes. However, the purpose of that goal is ents a façade of individualism, it ignores the social
not clear. Unless it is solely to have a group of people conditions that affect achievement gaps in educa-
to lord over and have do the remedial tasks the other tion, graduation rates, underrepresentation in higher
classes wish not to do—a form of institutional and education (particularly prestigious institutions), and
societal slavery. employment disparities remain” (Aleman et al., 2011,
pg. 485). There is an overdrive whose goal is to spin
his election to say that everything is solved, and at the
The Next Big Thing in Organized Racism
same time these groups are convincing the world there
We are standing on a great precipice in the next re- is no problem while systematically oppressing African
creation of racism and segregation and it has already Americans more so, or to a fuller extent, than before
begun to take shape. Major proportions of society have Obama was elected to compensate for the election of
worked to make racism invisible, but yet enduring, a black president (Aleman et al., 2011). Coupled with
and now they will work to make us forget that it exists the economic woes of late, race relations are on a de-
altogether. All of the events and history of segrega- cline in present-day America, not nonexistent. It is one
tion, racism, and ghetto creation have been leading to a thing to argue with someone and the other person take
point, this point. While we do not believe there was (or the opposing view, but it is much harder to argue with
is) a great plan, at least not one written, the stars have people who say that the problem does not exist, in this
aligned for racists. We are at the point that segregation case inequality.
has become institutionalized and part of American life, If we say a problem is nonexistent, then there is
which means the next evolution is to say there is no a lack of urgency to do anything about it. From an
problem—that it does not exist—that it never existed economic point of view, why should we, as a soci-
because it has become part of the landscape. ety, spend money on fixing something that people
The focus has become on individuals and economics say does not exist? After all, it would be cheaper, as
and not race, which has purposely been the direct shift. money continues to get tighter, to divert those funds
56    BRIAN J. BOGGS AND CHRIS DUNBAR

to other “real” problems. It is a difficult logic to ar- REFERENCES

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and invisible in this capitalist society. In a society that ca’s School. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
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Shulman and G. Sykes (Eds.), Handbook of Teaching and
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH Policy (pp. 318–341). New York: Longman.
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Future research will need to take into consideration fairs, Fall (5), 35–55.
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actly did this start? It did not just occur with the elec- Housing in Chicago 1940–1960. Chicago: University of
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any of us do, as we move forward, we should think 94, 278–313.
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Kusmer, K. L. (1978). A Ghetto Takes Shape: Black Cleve- Reardon, S. (2011). The Widening Academic Achievement
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 SECTION 2

TEACHING, LEARNING, CURRICULUM, AND

EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES
 Section 2 Introduction
Rhodesia McMillian

In this section we explore the urban educational leader’s fort implemented in a large urban school district. The
role in curriculum, instruction, and educational out- chapter ultimately suggests that PP is a viable and scal-
comes. However, we also explore key policy changes able urban high school reform based on its elements of
that impact teaching and learning in urban schools such depth, spread, shift of ownership, and sustainability.
as NCLB and the student achievement gap, and the ur- In chapter 7, “Developing Teacher Leadership for
ban charter schools movement. Equity in Urban Schools,” authors H. Richard Milner
Chapter 5, “Creating a Culture of Confidence: Re- IV, Judson Laughter, and Joshua Childs argue for the
Conceptualizing Urban Educational Leadership” by necessity of teacher leadership—in, from, and beyond
Yvette Jackson, Veronica McDermott, Marlon Sim- the classroom—to cultivate practices that support eq-
mons, and Mairi McDermott present their groundbreak- uity in urban schools. In this chapter, they suggest that
ing theory grounded in their work with urban communi- teacher leadership be a central goal of teacher prepara-
ties. Their concept of fearless leadership is presented tion programs and professional development oppor-
as an alternative frame to examine the realities faced tunities in order to prepare them to teach and lead in
by urban educators and students. Authors Glenn Baete, urban classrooms. This section is anchored by chapter
Joe Burks, Marty Pollio, and Craig Hochbein present 8, “Teachers Learning to Lead: An Action Research
chapter 6, “Bringing Urban High School Reform to Process Model,” in which author Leena Furtado focuses
Scale: Rapidly Moving Dramatic Numbers of Students on the importance of pedagogy in teacher preparation
to Proficient Performance” by summarizing the effects programs to build enhanced professional and leadership
of Project Proficiency (PP), a high school scale-up ef- skills.

61
 CHAPTER 5

Creating a Culture of Confidence

Re-Conceptualizing Urban Educational Leadership
Yvette Jackson, Veronica McDermott, Marlon Simmons, Mairi McDermott

INTRODUCTION understand, challenge, and disrupt the variant threats in-

cluding misguided punitive public policies, purposeful
What does it mean to destabilize the taken-for-granted media misrepresentations, and private-sector interests
received narratives of what is possible in urban educa- that have usurped the conversation about public educa-
tional spaces? What does it mean to re-imagine urban tion for their own means as well as to maintain the status
educational leadership as something other than the con- quo. These leaders must have a germane knowledge
ventional hierarchical leader/follower relationship? In base and volition to respond to the contingencies of an
this chapter, we seek to address these questions as they imposed system that devalues the work of their teach-
come to be framed in the present epoch of neoliberal- ers and the lives of their students, an imperial system
ism in education. Neoliberalism has had a particularly that simultaneously masks its oppressive effects on the
pernicious role in urban education, saturating many lives of their students. These leaders must have the will
urban schools with fear and uncertainty. Among the to respond to the needs of historically marginalized
tough questions urban educational leaders cope with students. In other words, they must have the episte-
daily in this epoch are: Will their schools be closed, mological framework and resiliency to counter fixed
re-constituted, or otherwise punished because their stu- essentialist categories, which discursively organize and
dents and teachers do not “measure up” to increasingly inscribe their experiences within institutional schooling
more punitive standards imposed without considering and education settings.
the historical ways in which various identity loca- We suggest that leaders who work to address these
tions—race, class, gender, sexuality, language, ability, concerns ought to be fearless, that fearless leaders
and religion—have hierarchized access to power and comprehensively understand the landscape of urban
privilege? Will they be able to find, cultivate, and retain education, including the socio-historical contexts that
committed, confident, and competent teachers critical have led to contemporary conditions. Fearless leaders
enough to withstand the constant pressures of a system consider the possibilities and limitations of pedagogy,
designed to drive them, and many of their students, striving to find transformative approaches that foster
into “educational exile” (Dei, et al., 2000; Fine, 1991; distinctive, productive ways of being, living, and know-
Jackson and McDermott, 2012)? Will they be able to ing for students, pedagogues, and leaders that cultivate
rewrite the cultural script and counter the deficit model their strengths, as well as their competence and confi-
narrative that has been written about their schools, their dence for academic thriving and self-actualization.
teachers, and especially their students, in order to reveal The chapter considers what fearless leadership in-
the often under-recognized, under-cultivated, under- volves, the manner in which it comes to be particularly
promoted, and under-demonstrated potentials in their needed in urban schools, and how fearless leadership
schools (Delpit, 1995; Duncan-Andrade and Morrell, can transform urban schools into oases of learning and
2008; Dweck, 2000; Jackson, 2011)? being. This is done by considering, rethinking each of
We suggest that in order to do so, leaders must culti- the ideas outlined above: the socio-historical context
vate a culture of confidence, by way of critical values, of urban education, the production and dissemination
support systems, resources, and gumption to holistically of learning and teaching through a critical pedagogy

62
 CREATING A CULTURE OF CONFIDENCE      63

imbued with belief and confidence, and a reconceptual- grading of students, the division of knowledge into sepa-
ization of leadership in urban education. rate subjects, and the self-contained classroom with one
teacher” (1995, p. 9, quoted in Albrecht-Crane, 2005, p.
495). In an era when students, teachers, and education
SOCIO-HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF broadly speaking are suffering from the onslaught of
URBAN EDUCATION
reform efforts, we know that we can count on schools
remaining recognizable. Despite the reforms, schools
Urban Education and the “Grammar of Schooling”
remain recognizable even in terms of what knowledges
Re-conceptualizing urban educational leadership be- and pedagogical approaches are engaged depending
gins by fearlessly asking questions about what could upon the type of schooling site. Albrecht-Crane contin-
be. How might we imagine schooling and education ues, “Coupled with other binary segmentations in terms
differently? How might we go about transforming of gender, class, race, and sexuality, which are opera-
urban education so that students, teachers, and lead- tive in Western societies, the school becomes a place in
ers can actualize their full potential and beyond? Si- which individuals are folded into a distinct system of
multaneously, re-conceptualizing urban educational classification and ordering. As Tyack and Cuban put it,
leadership requires fearlessly asking questions about the school provides ‘a place for every child and every
how we got where we are. We believe that a critical child in his or her place’ (1995, p. 20)” (ibid.).
engagement with the historical, colonial ways in which The “grammar of schooling” in Western society is de-
education broadly conceptualized, and urban educa- cidedly familiar. What does this familiar grammar look
tion in particular, have been constituted is necessary like in urban education? There is largely no consensus
in order to burst open the taken-for-grantedness of the as to what counts as “urban education” (Milner, 2012);
way schooling is done. As such, we believe this criti- however, it is increasingly conjured up as a descriptor
cal engagement must destabilize that which has been for schooling sites embodied by historically marginal-
deemed immutable through policy, media, and public ized youth, regardless of the particular geography of
discourses in an effort to imagine something different the school. Urban, as a term, has come to be codified
for urban education. In other words, we work with a through various means (which are outside the scope of
“theory of mediation [that] highlights the ideological this paper) to signify racialized, impoverished students
interests and contradictions inherent in cultural texts and communities. This contention alone has significant
and social processes . . . by subjecting them to a mode implications for re-conceptualizing urban leadership,
of critical reflection that exposes the social function of not the least of which speaks to the reification of what
those meanings and ideas legitimated by the dominant “places” historically marginalized youth can take up in
culture” (Giroux, 2001, p. 65). To situate the politics contemporary society.
of education we query, which students, teachers, and If we were to trace the history of marginalization in
administrators are located where and by what means? institutionalized schooling and education in relation to
Furthermore, some of the questions we think through the roles made available for which groups in contempo-
in this section are: How do we come to locate the par- rary society, we would confront the history of subjuga-
ticular knowledges, bodies, and geographies that con- tion and be forced to contend with the issue that schools
stitute urban education? What is the relation of urban were historically designed with particular groups in
education, as it is presently conceptualized and lived, to mind. Linda Darling-Hammond (2010) (among others)
standardized education as imbued through a neoliberal traces the opportunity gap for minoritized students to
schooling framework? This discussion will provide the history of subjugation and the system of colonial
a backdrop for our suggestions of re-conceptualizing education. With this history in mind, in what follows we
urban leadership by way of critical pedagogy. focus on the contemporary situation in which neoliberal
In situating the socio-historical context of urban edu- discourses and policies have exacerbated the marginal-
cation, we would like to address what David Tyack and ization of particular youth by way of intensification of
Larry Cuban have termed “the grammar of schooling,” impossible standardizations within schooling practices.
which “include[s] such familiar practices as the age- Since the 1800s, particularly since Horace Mann, com-
64    YVETTE JACKSON, VERONICA MCDERMOTT, MARLON SIMMONS, MAIRI MCDERMOTT

mon schooling has been heralded as the great equalizer, are political spaces embodied through cultures of dif-
and while we believe in the critical democratic possibili- ference—cultures of difference that have historically
ties of education (as will be explicated in the next two resisted dominant narratives of understanding the
sections), we believe there is an urgency to unmasking socio-cultural environment—these bodies of cultural
the insidious character of contemporary education. In difference have been ignored. Particular accounts of
this discussion, we focus on the role of neoliberalism in schooling and education have emerged that ultimately
urban education that has given rise to the current roles delineate the way in which educational resources are
and embodiments made available. organized, inscribed, and disseminated within schools.
This delineation works to produce, reproduce, and
maintain existing hegemonic relations of power and
Neoliberalism and Urban Education
privilege (Davies, 2000; Dehli, 2003; McDermott and
Historically, schooling formed hegemonic relations Madan, 2012; Popkewitz, 1997). Many of these hege-
with the capitalist market in which particular bodies monic practices are experienced, and even exacerbated,
were excluded from education. Colonial schooling under the trope of urban education.
formed hegemonic relations with educational delivery, Over the past decades neoliberalism has emerged as
curricula, and schooling practices. Dominant perspec- the dominant discourse that frames curricula initiatives
tives on education institutionalized curricula in ways and pedagogical practices. David Harvey (2005), in his
that organized knowledge dissemination within mul- important work on neoliberalism, notes that neoliberal-
tiple and distinct spheres of schooling. At the same ism consists of particular institutionalized discursive
time conservative manifestations of schooling imbued practices, which promulgate that the human condition can
parochial forms of curricula that centered particular be improved by way of entrepreneurship, free market,
underlying assumptions of knowledge, which imposed and free trade. And the role of the state is to organize
rote procedures, standardized testing, and evaluative and inscribe institutional methods to meet those market
measures of assessment (Apple, 1995; Giroux, 2001; needs. Institutions of the state such as schools and uni-
Kincheloe, 2010; Marcuse, 2009a; 2009b; Stanley, versities have become saturated with neoliberal modes of
1992). These practices culminated in the production and thought resulting in curricula practices such as standard-
reproduction of inequalities within the governing socio- ized testing, overdependence on questionable evaluative
cultural public sphere. Students tangentialized by race, measures of learning, and banking concepts of educa-
class, gender, sexuality, religion, language, and ableism tion. The banking concept emanates from the notion that
were historically excluded from classroom discussions knowledge is to be deposited, repeated, and memorized
that spoke to their lived experiences and pedagogical (Freire, 1970). In a sense then, emphasis on knowledge
articulations, which shaped and characterized their day- that is deposited, standardized, and measurable reduces
to-day lives through these processes of standardization, learning and understanding to something tangible. Stu-
banking models of pedagogy, outcomes based assess- dent success becomes determined through this singular
ment, and universalized knowledge (Freire, 1970, 1985; measurable relationship with the texts and curricula.
Ladson-Billings, 2000; Steinberg, 2012). We want to be explicit that we start with the no-
Many of these historical colonial practices that tion of neoliberalism as a re-inscription of colonial
previously informed educational goals and schooling dominance over knowledge production and educational
relationships have given way to another equally limit- space, while also obfuscatory in a manner privileging of
ing approach in the form of neoliberal articulations particular bodies—Euro, white males, for example. To
through universalized methods of teaching and learn- quote Coleman (2006):
ing, which, in the process, silences questions about
Since the categories of privilege attempt to secure their
power, privilege, and the relevance of embodied cul- privilege by rendering their preferential status as natural
tural knowledge as a means to come to understand the and therefore as immutable and irresistible, it is impor-
world we live in (Apple, 2001; Giroux, 2005; Harvey, tant that we remind ourselves that they are in fact proj-
2005; McDermott and Simmons, 2013; McMahon and ects. Deeply invested in maintaining, if not increasing,
Portelli, 2012; Simmons, 2011). Even though schools their social status, they are passively dynamic, always
 CREATING A CULTURE OF CONFIDENCE      65

engaged in the activities of self-invention, reinvention, obscures the historical injustices that shape those very
self-maintenance, and adaptation, even as they try to norms. To uphold the rationale for privatization and
avoid observation or detection as anything but fixed. de-regulation, the third feature, Excellence, Effort, and
(p. 10) Meritocracy, plays an important role. Success becomes
dehistoricized and is de-linked from its social context by
Our examination of neoliberalism in urban education
way of individualization. To “make it,” one must merely
has led us to identify five key features of the neoliberal
“pull themselves up by the bootstraps.” In other words,
agenda:
through excellence and effort one will be rewarded in
1.  Market Rationale—Choice, Competition, and the market. The message is that those who have “made
Consumption it” did so through merit.
2.  Privatization and De-Regulation Contradicting the emphasis on individualization is
3.  Excellence, Effort, and Meritocracy the emphasis on Universalism, Standardization, and
4.  Universalism, Standardization, and Performance Performance Outcomes, which are rationalized due to
Outcomes their measurability. First of all it must be asked, how
5.  Deficit Thinking and Stop-Gap Policies are the universals and standards conceptualized? Who is
doing the defining? What is being done when only out-
While each of these features is fraught with contra- comes are measured and not processes? “Those who do
dictions, both within each category as well as across not fit the productivity profile along the lines of gender,
the features, they are organized around a certain logic, a race, first-third world situatedness, or educated-illiterate
logic that seeks to maintain status quo relations to power are likely to be marginalized, for example, by way of
and privilege for limited bodies. One assumption of the surveillance and disciplining through the criminal jus-
Market Rationale is that competition will create more tice system” (Essed and Goldberg, 2002, p. 1075). In
choice and innovation; however, the patterns show that other words, what happens to those who do not or can-
competition has actually created more similarity. As not meet the standards-market norms based on how the
Michael Apple (2001) describes it, with the neoliberal standards are defined?  In our different experiences, we
agenda, “More time and energy is spent maintaining have all been confronted with various renditions of the
public image of a ‘good school’ and less time and en- following: data being collected on the “success” (both
ergy is spent on pedagogic and curricular substance.” past, present, and projected) of students in urban schools
As a result, “schools themselves become more similar informing the decisions for building and/or maintain-
and more committed, to standard, traditional, whole ing jail capacity in the community. Finally, Deficit
class methods of teaching, and a standard and traditional Thinking, where the emphasis is placed on “fixing” the
(and often mono-cultural) curriculum” (p. 416). Ironi- deficient student, rather than the system or structures.
cally, this is especially true in urban educational spaces To address these deficiencies, Stop-Gap Policies, quick
where it is particularly harmful and dehumanizing. “fixes” often focused on the individual students (or their
Privatization and De-Regulation speaks to the no- communities), are implemented in the mistaken belief
tions that less government is inevitably more efficient that if we add a course here, or change something over
and that the market is the great equalizer. However, there, we can somehow mend the fragile foundation
as Larner (2000) points out, “while neoliberalism may filled with gaping holes. Stop-Gap Policies are nothing
mean less government, it does not follow that there is more than manifestations of the seduction of simple
less governance. . . . It [neoliberalism] involves forms solutions and do little by way of transforming a system
of governance that encourage both institutions and in- that is invested in upholding the status quo.
dividuals to conform to the norms of the market” (p. Since the 1983 Reagan-era report, A Nation At Risk,
12). In this frame, only some institutions and individu- we have witnessed increasingly pejorative representa-
als, even if they “conform to the norms,” are viewed as tions of education in society. In that report, we were
“legitimate” while too many others, particularly those in told that where the United States was once a leader,
urban education, are made expendable. Simultaneously, we were now fast falling behind other Westernized na-
this pressure to “conform to the norms of the market” tions. This was the catalyst (or perhaps the scapegoat)
66    YVETTE JACKSON, VERONICA MCDERMOTT, MARLON SIMMONS, MAIRI MCDERMOTT

to dramatically change government funding schemes for relationships—come to know, learn, and understand
education and other social supports and opened the door differently.
for neoliberal rationality. Klaf and Kwan (2010) refer to The Pedagogy of Confidence, as an alternative ori-
this as the neoliberal straitjacket, “This ‘one-size-fits- entation of thought, is purposefully counter-hegemonic.
all’ garment [which] has ‘pinched’ spaces of education Rather than focusing on and/or lamenting the perceived
(although differentially), pressuring schools to improve deficits of urban students, teachers, schools, and com-
their students’ performances or face sanctions” (p. 195). munities, the Pedagogy of Confidence is grounded in
We want to be clear that we too believe there is much mining for strengths and challenging the conventional
room for improvement in contemporary schooling and notion of “gifted.” How could education be different, it
education; however, we will be making different sug- asks, if learning is embodied in the lived experiences of
gestions to move us there. urban students, rather than denigrating or disacknowl-
edging them? What are the possibilities if we chal-
RETHINKING KNOWLEDGE THROUGH PEDAGOGY lenged the notion of the ways in which some students
OF CONFIDENCE™ are “gift-ed”—that is, how some students continually
receive gifts while others are systematically ignored in
While neoliberal educational policies may have had a education—by providing urban students with the same
long and deep, hegemonic and marginalizing hold on approaches to learning that encourage students marked
the experiences of many students, we must remem- as “gifted” to pursue their interests, challenge their in-
ber that they make up a project that is actively being telligence, follow their creative instincts, develop lead-
constructed, and it is not, in fact, natural or inevitable ership skills, improve their self-esteem and social skills,
(Coleman, 2006) as proponents of the current policies and do all of this in an environment framed by trust
would have you believe. In other words, schooling-as- and modified to accommodate individual needs through
usual, or “the grammar of schooling,” can be challenged self-directed learning supported by a full range of en-
and transformed. Indeed, it requires rethinking knowl- riching experiences and fueled by a belief in their ability
edge, the subject of the next section, which, we suggest, and potential? The Pedagogy of Confidence shatters the
can happen with re-conceptualizing and re-valuing delimiting current level of expectations for urban stu-
leadership dedicated to fostering cultures of confidence. dents and simultaneously acknowledges that supports
What is needed to counter the “grammar of school- need to be in place to cultivate cultures of confidence in
ing” is an alternative orientation of thought, a critical urban schools. Several counter-hegemonic beliefs un-
pedagogy, such as the Pedagogy of Confidence (Jack- derpin this critical pedagogy: both students and teachers
son, 2011), as a way to address the “crime of squan- are viewed as capable; pedagogical and cultural orienta-
dered potential” (Jackson and McDermott, 2012) in tion matters; and confidence is an important ingredient
urban education framed by neoliberalism. Pedagogy of in learning and teaching. Furthermore, the Pedagogy of
Confidence amplifies the possibilities of ways of believ- Confidence is based upon three transformative beliefs:
ing and being that are different from the limiting his- intelligence is modifiable; all students benefit from a
torical relationships shaped in and through hegemonic focus on critical intellectual performances; and learning
meta-narratives, the media, and educational policies. is influenced by the interaction of culture, language,
This alternative way of knowing, which dialogues with and cognition (for a more thorough discussion of these
what students bring to school—their cultures, knowl- points, see Jackson, 2011).
edges, and ways of being—provides teachers with seven Building from this understanding, the Pedagogy of
operational practices for engaging and motivating stu- Confidence engages particular practices that dramati-
dents to demonstrate critical intellectual performances, cally alter what is happening in classroom spaces in
and aims to build a community of learners which works ways that transform expectations and relationships, and
to disrupt historical hierarchical configurations—to that question existing structures and practices. The fo-
nurture a mediative learning community (Jackson, cus of the Pedagogy of Confidence is on how teachers
2011) in which students, teachers, and leaders—through orient themselves to learning and teaching, rather than
communal spaces, mediational practices, and reciprocal the neoliberal approach, which prescribes what is taught
 CREATING A CULTURE OF CONFIDENCE      67

and how it is taught. The seven practices grounding the of Confidence is Student Voice/NUA (National Urban
Pedagogy of Confidence are: identifying and activating Alliance), where, among other things, students become
student strengths, building relationships, eliciting high co-learners with their teachers in professional learning
intellectual performance, providing enrichment, inte- sessions. Students learn about learning as a way to em-
grating prerequisites for academic learning, situating power them. They co-design lessons as a way to dialogi-
learning in the lives of students, and amplifying student cally engage with teachers around teaching.
voice. They present lessons to other students and to teachers
Our goal, here, in thinking through the beliefs and as a way to transform pedagogy throughout the school.
practices outlined in the Pedagogy of Confidence is to The Pedagogy of Confidence is not, therefore, content
attempt to articulate an embodiment of knowledge that with simply changing what happens in a classroom or
diverges from rote procedures of curricula, standardized multiple classrooms. Instead, it is meant to be a culture-
testing, and evaluative measures of assessment in order shifting mechanism designed to topple hegemonic rela-
to foster cultures of confidence and rehumanize educa- tionships, ways of being, and definitions of learning. It
tion. Like the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, we posit is designed to transform schools into mediative learning
a critical pedagogy that is ecologically concerned with communities. As Jackson (2011) indicates:
questions of transformative education, social change
and justice in the urban context, one that is counter-he- Mediative learning communities are communities in
gemonic, political, and involves the lived experiences of which all participants (teachers, principals, and stu-
students. In this way students can think through lessons, dents) are emancipated and empowered to share their
voices to transform the school into an oasis of success
reflecting on their lived experiences, make connections
where strengths are valued and self-directed learning is
to the broader socio-cultural and political issues govern-
enabled. (p. 4)
ing urban societies, and the possibilities for their contri-
butions for transformative actions. Such lessons would
speak to a range of conversations involving teachers and FEARLESS LEADING: RE-CONCEPTUALIZING
students about the complexities of power, privilege, and AND RE-VALUING LEADERSHIP IN THE URBAN
knowledge production as installed through the configu- LANDSCAPE
rations of urban education. It would allow students to
be the center of their knowledge production rather than As we come to conclude, we draw on Aim High, Achieve
passive depositories. It allows students to engage in po- More: How to Transform Urban Schools Through Fear-
litical dialogues with the classroom pedagogue to hone less Leadership (Jackson and McDermott, 2012), which
critical interpretive, dialogic, communicative, civic, and conceptualizes fearless leadership by addressing a set
analytical tools. In the urban context, such a framework of corresponding values that come to inform urban edu-
allows students to come into an understanding of domi- cational leadership for transformational schooling and
nant/colonial forms of knowledge embedded within cur- education. These values are affirmation, inspiration, and
ricula; what constitutes emancipatory ways of knowing; mediation, which, taken holistically, re-value the ways
how they come to be located through these paradigms in which schools respond to historical and contempo-
within their everyday world; and the particular ways rary issues of marginalization.
of leading the self through these hegemonic epistemo- By thinking through questions of leadership in urban
logical terrains. This provides space for students and education, we ask, how do we come to re-conceptualize
teachers to co-create cultures of confidence, cultures of the notion of leadership as a model of leading the self?
support, cultures of alternative ways of being. In other words, what does it mean to think of self-actu-
A critical pedagogy, then, works to rupture hegemonic alization by way of leadership in urban education? What
relationships of students, teachers, administrators, and do urban leaders need to be fearless about and what are
communities. The Pedagogy of Confidence allows space the ways in which they can come to lead fearlessly in
for teachers to learn from students and community mem- schooling and education?
bers as much as students and community members learn Our work is based upon three key assumptions about
from teachers. One of the hallmarks of the Pedagogy transforming leading and learning.
68    YVETTE JACKSON, VERONICA MCDERMOTT, MARLON SIMMONS, MAIRI MCDERMOTT

•  Transforming urban schools to disrupt their histo- architect, soul-friend, muse, and minister (for detailed
ries and current state is too complicated to be the discussion on how these metaphors have been framed,
work of an individual. It requires a purposeful top- see Jackson and McDermott, 2012)—to reflect the val-
pling of the hegemonic ordering of leader-follower ues for transformative education by way of critical ped-
relationships, universalized standards and individu- agogy. We suggest, then, that leaders who conceptualize
alized meritocracy by way of competition. themselves differently position themselves differently
•  All constituents (students, teachers, leaders, and and perform differently.
community) need to be leaders in the transforma- Time and again we have seen schools transformed
tion of themselves, which leads to the co-transfor- when leaders respond to a call to action and open up
mation of the culture of the school and uncovers the spaces for shared re-conceptualization of leader-
cultures of confidence that can undo hegemonic ship that enables a process that is organic to students’
forces toward market-driven goals and banking lived experiences. For educational leadership to rupture
models of learning. hegemonic conceptions of schooling, hierarchical no-
•  How participants in this process of transformation tions of leadership must be ruptured. Leaders capable of
understand themselves in relation to social spaces challenging the dominant system do so from a confident
and histories matters, so that they can rewrite the sense of self, a critical moral compass, and a sense of
narrative that too often marks them as deficient. urgency. They are radically confident, radically present,
Transformative critical leadership necessitates ask- and radically strategic. They are radical in the sense
ing tough questions of stopgap policies such as who that they get to the root of what really matters, they
does the policy benefit, who produced the policy, understand and unmask the socio-historical and current
and what is the policy productive of? conditions that drain the energy from urban education,
and they ignite and sustain a mutually shared transfor-
Our position is that through re-conceptualizing lead- mational process (Jackson and McDermott, 2012).
ership, urban schools can be transformed from within Getting to the root of what matters involves urban
in ways that create a culture that is purposefully made leaders collectively building confidence of students and
different than what is proposed by the neoliberal edu- teachers, as well as entire communities who may be
cational agenda, a culture that has the ability to stoke worn down by the narratives others have written about
potential; to disrupt existing conceptions of learning, their lives, their worth, and their potential. Fearless
power, and privilege; and to lead to equitable practices leadership, then, involves leaders throwing off the “neo-
for achievement and self-actualization. We encourage liberal straitjacket” by uncovering, asserting, recogniz-
critical engagement amongst official leaders—leaders ing, and valuing their lives, worth, and potential. When
who possess titles—and unofficial leaders—those who school communities look at the contemporary situation
come into leadership by way of community member- through the lens of the “crime of squandered potential”
ship, race, class, gender, and language—to name and (Jackson and McDermott, 2012), they discard the notion
mark power and privilege. In other words, leaders must that school failure lies within them, and instead they
be prepared to destabilize their position by asking what amplify that failure lies within the ways urban schools
conditions make their power and privilege possible and have been conceptualized. This alternative frame of
how can we re-conceptualize leadership to be more in- reference enables them to find ways to cultivate their
clusive? The re-conceptualization of leadership is mul- strengths and critically question key aspects of the neo-
tifold. It requires dismantling who is made recognizable liberal agenda.
as a “leader,” as well as what metaphors are engaged to To garner the strength and vision to engage com-
inform models of leadership. In neoliberal approaches, munities in a shared, countercultural re-imagining of
leaders are often conceptualized as “all-knowing,” char- educational spaces requires a different kind of leader-
ismatic individuals who both define the ultimate goals ship. We are suggesting that fearless leadership involves
and impose the methods to attain those goals. Instead, acts of mediation through the Pedagogy of Confidence
as reframed by Jackson and McDermott (2009, 2012), which dialogues with the production, dissemination,
leadership should engage different metaphors—those of and reception of knowledge within schooling practices.
 CREATING A CULTURE OF CONFIDENCE      69

It involves drawing from the varied representations of Dehli, K. (2003). Making the parent and the researcher: Ge-
the classroom as a text that constitute different teach- nealogy meets ethnography in research on contemporary
ers and learners, to come to make possible a critical school reforms. In M. Tamboukou & S. J. Ball (Eds.),
theoretical framework that disentangles the historical Dangerous encounters: Genealogy and ethnography (pp.
tensions of curricula as governed through schooling 133–151). New York: Peter Lang.
Dei, G. J. S., I. M. James, S. James-Wilson, L. L. Karuman-
practices. Thus fearless leadership inculcates a mode
chery, and J. Zine. (2000). Removing the Margins: The
of thinking that self-reflexively considers how different
challenges and possibilities of inclusive schooling. To-
ways of making meaning come to wittingly or unwit- ronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
tingly inform one’s thoughts and resultant actions. In so Delpit, L. (1995). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict
doing, fearless leaders come into a critical conceptual in the classroom. New York: The New Press.
map that amplifies oppressive and subordinate spaces, Duncan-Andrade, J. M. R. and E. Morrell. (2008). The art of
at the same time enabling themselves with the praxis to critical pedagogy: Possibilities for moving from theory to
transcend their lived sociocultural experiences under the practice in urban schools. New York: Peter Lang.
governing hegemonic nexus of schooling and society. Dweck, C. (2000). Self theories: Their role in motivation,
The production of fearless leaders also involves the personality, and development. New York: Psychology
cultural embodiment of the self. Part and parcel of lead- Press.
ership of the self is with decoding the ways in which Essed, P. and D. T. Goldberg. (2002). Cloning cultures: The
meaning comes to be made through culture and how social injustice of sameness. Ethnic and Racial Studies,
25(6), 1066–1082.
this meaning comes to be valued and devalued within
Fine, M. (1991). Framing dropouts: Notes on the politics of
schools. Yet these culturally inscribed ways of knowing
an urban public high school. Albany: State University of
one’s sociocultural environment are filled with discon- New York Press.
tinuities, contradictions, and encumberings. If our col- Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York:
lective goal is with cultivating critically fearless leaders Continuum.
of the self in urban education through mediative learn- Freire, P. (1985). The Politics of Education: Culture, Power
ing communities that uncover cultures of confidence, and Liberation. Westport CT: Bergin & Garvey.
we propose a particular leadership of the self which Giroux, A. H. (2005). The Terror of Neoliberalism: Rethink-
dialogues with these discontinuities, contradictions, and ing the Significance of Cultural Politics. College Litera-
encumberings immanent to everyday social processes ture, 32(1), 1–19.
to build communal spaces for transformative education, Giroux, A. H. (2001). Theory and resistance in education:
social change, and social justice. Towards a pedagogy for the opposition. Connecticut: Ber-
gin & Garvey.
Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford:
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 CHAPTER 6

Bringing Urban High School Reform to Scale

Rapidly Moving Dramatic Numbers of Students to Proficient Performance
Glenn Baete, Joe Burks, Marty Pollio, and Craig Hochbein

INTRODUCTION high school graduates who secured the principal’s rec-

ommendation and submitted a record of their involve-
The purpose of this paper is to provide urban practi- ment in activities, interests, and academic work. The
tioners hope for the increased probability of effective, study revealed that students from 8-Year Schools were
scalable, and sustainable high school reform. After neither ill-prepared for college work, nor displayed
articulating the requirements and challenges of taking negative differences in college performance than their
high school reform to scale, the paper describes the non-8-Year counterparts (Aiken, 1942). Subsequent
significant success of Project Proficiency (PP), a large analysis revealed that secondary schools with the most
urban district’s high school reform effort. The next progressive reform strategies produced gains that ex-
part outlines the results of three empirical studies of ceeded non-participating schools.
the impact of PP across eleven high schools, followed Seven decades after Aiken (1942) reported the find-
by a detailed description of PP’s overarching strategy ings of the 8-Year Study, educators continue to grapple
of “guaranteeing competency” and its four organizing with high school reform. The desire for educators to
components. The paper finally argues that PP meets a make significant and lasting instructional improvements
scalability litmus test and merits further research for is high as public confidence in public schools is at
PP’s potential to establish high school reform to scale record-low levels (Gallup, 2011). Modern policymak-
in an urban district. ers seek to create a twenty-first-century workforce with
globally competitive skills, improve American produc-
tivity and economic growth, and continue the United
HIGH SCHOOL REFORM States’ role as world power (National Center on Edu-
cation and the Economy, 2008). National leaders have
In 1932 a group of over three hundred colleges and asserted that education, particularly at the high school
universities partnered with thirty high schools in one level, will stem the tide of mediocrity that threatens
of the twenty-first century’s first high school reform America’s prosperity (Obama, 2011; U.S. Department
projects. In what was later called the 8-Year Study, a of Education, 1983). Since the work of Aiken (1942),
cross section of American high schools had the freedom a plethora of studies over the past half-century have in-
to redesign their curriculum without the fear of gradu- vestigated the efforts taken by districts and high schools
ates denied admittance to college for lacking traditional to implement large-scale reforms (Berends, Bodilly,
entrance requirements (Aiken, 1942). Given the charge and Kirby, 2002; Bryk, 2010; Consortium on Chicago
to redefine the purpose of their high schools, 8-Year School Research, 2010; Crandall et al., 1982; Cuban,
participants connected teaching and learning to emerg- 1984; Darling-Hammond, 2006; Datnow, 2005; Datnow
ing knowledge of human growth and development, and Stringfield, 2000; Fullan, 2000; Fullan, Bertani,
experimented with longer class periods, eliminated and Quinn, 2004; Fullan and Pomfret, 1977; Holdzkom,
divisions between curricular and extracurricular activi- 2002; McLaughlin, 1990; Oxley and Kassissieh, 2008;
ties, and modified graduation requirements. In turn, the Oxley and Luers, 2010; Quint, 2006; Rorrer, Skrla,
participating colleges unconditionally admitted project and Schuerich, 2008; Stringfield, Reynolds, and Schaf-

71
72    GLENN BAETE, JOE BURKS, MARTY POLLIO, AND CRAIG HOCHBEIN

fer, 2008). These researchers identified successes and motivation of teachers, engaging educators and students
challenges with implementing high school reform and in continuous instructional improvement efforts, inspir-
cited key considerations, which included identifying ing collective teamwork, and affecting 100 percent of
the purpose of the reform, creating structures necessary students in the effort.
for successful implementation, and providing effective In her identification of NCLB accountability as an
internal and external supports to scale up those reforms. impediment to high school reform efforts, Darling-
Hammond (2006) identified four elements present in
high-performing urban schools: program personaliza-
ELEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL REFORMS
tion, well-qualified teachers, use of a common set of
core academic standards, and targeted supports for
Definition of Purpose
struggling students. She noted that “complicated rules
For the past twenty years, the desire of school and that accompany NCLB have unintentionally made it
district leaders to meet state and federal accountability more difficult for many heroic high schools in low-in-
measures and avoid sanctions has driven American high come neighborhoods to do their work well and keep the
school reform (Datnow, 2005; Fullan, 2000, 2011; No neediest students in school and moving to productive
Child Left Behind, 2001; Race to the Top, 2010). While futures” (Darling-Hammond, 2006, p. 646). Darling-
such mandates often did not require a school to identify Hammond suggested five problems with current NCLB
a specific reform initiative, three of the four current fed- legislation and called for repealing NCLB and identify-
eral turnaround models require high schools to redesign ing ways in which to support instructional innovation
structures and use frequent benchmarking to measure for America’s neediest students.
progress (School Improvement Fund, 2010). Coexistent
with meeting accountability requirements, many reform
Cultivation of Support
efforts sought to assist students who enter high schools
ill-prepared for the rigor necessary to succeed (Datnow, To ensure that schools meet accountability bench-
2005; Holdzkom, 2002; Quint, 2006). Thirty years marks and have implemented structures that foster and
before Race to the Top (RTTT), Fullan and Pomfret sustain high school reform, district leaders must utilize
(1977) discussed the moral imperative for schools to a wide variety of internal and external supports. In-
raise student achievement levels and close achievement ternal supports include actions taken by an individual
gaps for all individuals and schools. Federal legislation school or district to promote the reform effort and
supported this trend, as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) implementation. Fullan et al. (2004) called for school
guidelines required schools to show achievement gains districts to build coalitions of leaders who have the
for traditionally disadvantaged student populations and ability to engineer reform and increase engagement
other groups. School, district, and state accountability with stakeholders through effective two-way com-
has remained as a subject of debate on the local, state, munication. Datnow (2005) cited the importance of
and federal levels serving as a call for schools to adopt institutionalizing reform and the multiple factors that
reform efforts. lead to the stability of the effort, noting that, “forces
A great deal of scrutiny regarding high-stakes ac- at the state, district, design team, school, and class-
countability systems and their counterproductive effects room level all interacted to shape the longevity of the
exists. Fullan (2011) asserted that such accountability reform” (p. 145). Full and sustained reform requires
produces a negative attitude in teachers and schools district stewardship that promotes a strong vision of
and creates a destructive effect on a school culture, instruction, focuses on a strong instructional core,
“assuming that educators will respond to these prods shifts resources to support change, and ensures swift
by putting the effort to make the necessary change” (p. implementation (Oxley and Luers, 2010). The internal
8). In contrast to the negative impact that high-stakes capacity of a school district to build, support, and sus-
accountability has on reform, Fullan identified four tain reform efforts is key to its ultimate success (Bryk,
drivers of change necessary to judge the effectiveness 2010; Datnow, 2005; Fullan, 2000; Fullan et al., 2004;
and sustainability of reform efforts: fostering intrinsic Holdzkom, 2002; McLaughlin, 1990).
 BRINGING URBAN HIGH SCHOOL REFORM TO SCALE   73

In a narrative synthesis of eighty-one peer-reviewed activities from a variety of stakeholders was critical for
research articles on district reform, Rorrer et al. (2008) scale-up success. Bodilly et al. (2004) noted that, “if
identified four essential roles of school districts to sup- scale-up is to succeed, the actors involved—including
port school reform. First, the authors found that districts developers, district officials, school leaders, and teach-
provide instructional leadership that generates the will ers—must jointly address a set of known, interconnected
and capacity of reform for all schools in a district. As a tasks, especially aligning policies and infrastructure in
second function, school districts reoriented the organi- coherent ways to sustain practice” (p. 648).
zation, refined organizational structures and processes,
and made changes to district culture. Establishing
Alignment of Structures
policy coherence is a third function of school districts
that involves managing federal, state, and local poli- To make reform successful amidst the turmoil and
cies in addition to aligning district resources. A fourth politically charged NCLB landscape and take reform
role, maintaining an equity focus, involves a district’s efforts to scale, interdependence is necessary between
work to own and identify inequities within a district and school structures and instructional practices (McLaugh-
establishing practices that promote accessibility and lin, 1990; Oxley and Kassissieh, 2008; Quint, 2006).
transparency for all schools within a district. Although reform efforts that target students most in
In addition to cultivating internal partnerships, col- need experience relatively few hurdles to implementa-
laborating with external partners assists with the de- tion, similar reforms focused on comprehensive changes
velopment of strategies, procurement of resources, col- to a school tend to encounter many more difficulties.
lection of feedback, and dissemination of professional Reorganization status may debase not only the school
development (American Institutes for Research 1999, and staff, but also the reforms applied to it. Oxley and
2006; Fullan et al., 2004; Fullan and Pomphret, 1977). Luers (2010) studied the progress of the federal Small
However, in their review of scale-up reform efforts, Learning Communities (SLC) program and noted that
Bodilly, Glennan, Kerr, and Galegher (2004) noted districts that proactively launched reform initiatives
that technical assistance providers were often relatively across all high schools, regardless of their accountabil-
young and “provide only limited evidence of their value ity status, conveyed the message that reform initiatives
and have only limited capacity to deliver high quality are a set of best practices for all schools as opposed to
services” (p. 2). While the supports received through interventions suitable only for low performers, thereby
partnerships with technical assistance providers was a generating more favorable prospects for implementa-
popular means to accomplish whole school or district tion.
reform, the ability of a reform effort to adapt to the Researchers have noted that structural considerations
unique context of the schools served was equally im- are necessary at the school, district, and legislative
portant. levels to create and sustain innovation. For instance,
A delicate balance between reform fidelity and sen- Stringfield et al. (2008) described how leaders and edu-
sitivity to the individual context of a school makes full cators in high reliability schools established finite goals,
redesign effort implementation a challenge. Datnow standardized operating procedures, and utilized data
(2005) noted that successful reform designs institution- and data analysis to create a context in which failure is
alize reform involving “a multilevel process of embed- unacceptable. Fullan et al. (2004) identified the impor-
ding an innovation in the structure and norms of the or- tance of finding appropriate structures that give districts
ganization” (p. 123). The ability of a school or district to a common direction and collective purpose, focusing
operationalize the key elements of a reform effort while on improving teaching and learning for both adults and
adapting to the unique context in which a school oper- students, and providing role clarity. McLaughlin (1990)
ates was critical to the success of a reform (Aiken, 1942; called for revisions in existing federally funded reform
Datnow, 2005; Datnow and Stringfield, 2000; Fullan programs in order to “provide resources and support
and Pomphret, 1977; Holdzkom, 2002; Stringfield et professional growth” (p. 13). However, the challenge
al., 2008). In addition to a school district’s adaptability for reformers is to move quickly from the development
and flexibility, their ability to manage the supports and of structures to close examination and refinement of
74    GLENN BAETE, JOE BURKS, MARTY POLLIO, AND CRAIG HOCHBEIN

such structures, so as to influence instructional practices 2004; Newmann et al., 2001; Oxley, 2008). Genuine
and raise student achievement (Bryk, 2010; Datnow, and sustainable reform may require coherence of the
2005; Fullan, 2000; Fullan and Pomfret, 1977; Quint, elements of reform through an overarching strategy
2006). (Childress, Elmore, Grossman, and Akinola, 2004).
Newmann et al. (2001) defined instructional program
coherence as “a set of interrelated programs for students
PROBLEMS TAKING REFORM TO SCALE
and staff that are guided by a common framework for
curriculum, instruction, assessment, and learning cli-
Sustaining high school redesign efforts in a politically mate and are pursued over a sustained period” (p. 299).
charged and turbulent context is difficult for districts Through teacher surveys, student test scores, and field
wishing to improve schools and maintain public confi- studies within 222 Chicago elementary schools, New-
dence. Current NCLB and School Improvement Grant mann et al. found schools that improved instructional
(SIG) guidelines require quick improvements in order coherence also improved student achievement. From
to avoid sanctions that remove principals and teachers, their study, three conditions surfaced as evidence for
relinquish control of the school to an external manage- improved instructional coherence: a common instruc-
ment organization, adopt a performance-based transfor- tional framework for guiding teaching and learning,
mation model, or even close a persistently low-achieving staff working conditions to support implementation of
school. The disconnect between the time required to the common framework, and coordinated resources to
implement a reform at scale and the time mandated to support the framework.
improve remains a key factor in failed efforts. In his
review of Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) proj-
ects, Holdzkom (2002) observed that gains following PROJECT PROFICIENCY
a school reform effort became evident after three years
of implementation. Fullan (2000) noted that high school The Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), a large
reform success requires five to six years and district- urban district of approximately 100,000 students in
wide efforts need six to eight years. High stakes account- Louisville, Kentucky, has created a system, Project Pro-
ability systems that require quick gains hinder schools ficiency (PP), that is designed to meet the Newmann et
implementing reforms by forcing schools to put reform al. (2001) litmus test for robust, instructional program
aside for test preparation, placing a premium on instruc- coherence. Results from the 2010–2011 school year
tional strategies versus deep reform models, eliminating indicated that all twenty-one JCPS high schools gained
programs that may be of great benefit to students but in reading and math proficiency, with the eleven per-
not measured on accountability tests, and creating rules sistently low-achieving (PLA) and near-PLA schools
and policies that stymie innovation (Darling-Hammond, averaged a 14 percent gain in reading and a 17 percent
2006; Datnow, 2005; Holdzkom, 2002). gain in math, tripling state gains (Kentucky Department
Elements of school reform driven by purpose, imple- of Education, 2011).
mentation structures, and effective internal and external To connect practitioners and coordinate reform ef-
supports have been necessary and at times successful, forts amid the landscape of NCLB sanctions and chal-
but not reliably sufficient to move significant numbers lenges of advancing disadvantaged high school students
of students to proficient performance in urban school inherent with large urban districts, PP boldly established
districts (Earl, Torrance, and Sutherland, 2006; Payne, an overarching strategy of “guaranteed competency,” or
2008; Stringfield and Datnow, 1998). Districts fall into the goal of ensuring learning of key reading and math
a “fragmented circuit of school improvement activity” standards by each student. Through the “strategic func-
(Newman et al., p. 298). Instead of a variety of pro- tion” (Childress, Elmore, and Grossman, 2006, p. 59) of
grammatic changes, schools need instructional program guaranteed competency, JCPS created district-wide in-
coherence to coordinate structures, staff working con- structional program coherence evidenced by a common
ditions, and resources uniformly aimed at improving instructional framework, complementary staff working
student achievement (Honig and Hatch, 2004; Kedro, conditions, and supportive resources.
 BRINGING URBAN HIGH SCHOOL REFORM TO SCALE   75

Common instructional framework. Through a needed to create tasks through which students could
narrow curriculum, balanced assessment system, and demonstrate understanding, develop lessons with fo-
purpose-driven instructional principles, PP enabled cused learning targets aligned with those tasks, and
teachers to guarantee student competency of three key ensure each student demonstrated understanding of
standards each grading period and leverage a coher- each key standard. With instruction tied to required
ent common instructional framework. First, each six outcomes, teachers regularly adjusted how they deliv-
weeks, the district established three priority standards ered instruction, assessed, and intervened for struggling
with corresponding curriculum maps for core high and reluctant learners. Guaranteeing competency trans-
school English and math courses, providing clear learn- formed teachers from “directors into diagnosticians”
ing targets and expectations for staff and students. (Kedro, 2004, p. 32), shifted their mission from owner-
Unifying schools and the district around a reduced and ship of teaching to ownership of learning, and merged
nonnegotiable set of content standards provided a com- curriculum, assessment, and instructional systems into
mon direction for students, school staff, and district a seamless, coherent, and common instructional frame-
administrators. These goals resembled the set of goals work.
that characterized highly reliable organizations (HRO) Working conditions. Complementing a common in-
(Datnow and Stringfield, 2000; Stringfield et al., 2008). structional framework, PP fostered working conditions
Second, guaranteeing competency produced a “bal- characterized by collective teacher efficacy (DuFour,
anced assessment system” (Stiggins, 2008, p. 3) to DuFour, Eaker, and Karhanek, 2004; Newmann et
track student progress. PP included a district diagnostic al., 2001). Establishing the goal of guaranteed student
assessment to determine early levels of student under- competency generated levels of collaborative practice,
standing of each standard, a summative proficiency decision-making, and professional development not
assessment for an end-of-grading-period measure, and previously experienced by teachers. Due to the goal of
frequent teacher-designed formative assessments to moving each student to levels of competency by the
evaluate student improvement toward competency. Bas- end of each six weeks, teachers of common courses
ing student grades on demonstrations of competency met weekly and sometimes daily to diagnose learning
unified teachers around standards-based instruction and gaps and exchange updates on the numbers of students
assessment. Teachers reinforced their standards-based meeting competency. Drawing ideas from one another,
approach with opportunities for students to reflect on instructors collectively designed new lessons, tasks, and
their own progress, cited by Stiggins (2008) to posi- interventions to address student deficiencies. District
tively impact student achievement. To ensure learning, resource teachers provided recommendations for adjust-
teachers were required to guide each student to demon- ments and ideas from other teacher teams. School-based
strate competency for each of the three key standards by administrators promptly responded to teacher requests
the time the proficiency assessment was administered, for time, resources, and support. Collaborative reflec-
and those scoring below 80 percent on the proficiency tion, collective action, and collegial “expertise develop-
assessment were guided to recover or correct their work ment” (Bryk, 2009, p. 599) produced a coherent learn-
until they met the threshold target. Through a balance ing climate for practitioners through their “agency that
of diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments produced the texts, rules, and guidelines of their school
designed to guarantee student competency of clear stan- change process” (Stringfield and Datnow, 2002, p. 282).
dards, PP converted high school assignments, tests, and Coordinated resources. JCPS completed its coher-
grades into a coherent system to ensure learning. ent instructional program design with unprecedented
Third, similar to the Coalition of Essential Schools support resources of curricular materials, data manage-
design to improve teaching and learning through guid- ment, and principal leadership. Childress, Elmore, and
ing principles rather than a packaged program (Coali- Grossman (2006) asserted, “Only the district office can
tion of Essential Schools, 2011), PP coalesced instruc- create such a plan, identify and spread best practices,
tors around the precepts of shared accountability for develop leadership capabilities at all levels, build infor-
high-level, standards-based teaching, and ownership mation systems to monitor student improvement, and
of student results. To guarantee competency, teachers hold people accountable for results” (p. 55). With input
76    GLENN BAETE, JOE BURKS, MARTY POLLIO, AND CRAIG HOCHBEIN

from local school practitioners, district curriculum spe- prior, not receiving the PP treatment. This comparison
cialists identified the key standards for each core course evaluated the performance of different students in the
from state-mandated content, developed curriculum same subject area. The second control group consisted
pacing guides for each grading period, and designed of the same students who received PP in Algebra II, but
corresponding diagnostic and proficiency assessments. utilized their state assessment performance in another
To provide effective and timely student performance subject area, such as social studies or science. This
information and positively impact interventions at the comparison evaluated the performance of the same
classroom, school, and district levels (Stiggins and students in different subject areas. Together, these
DuFour, 2009), JCPS designed a web-based data entry comparisons reduced the threats to validity and isolated
system for diagnostic, formative, and summative as- the impact of PP on student performance on state as-
sessment results that provided teachers with details for sessments in Algebra II. In the tables and figures below
tracking student demonstration of competency, diagnos- we demonstrated the mean differences between groups;
ing possible content misunderstandings, and convert- however, quantitative analysis using ordinary least
ing standards-based evaluation of student competency squares regression, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM),
into grades (Jefferson County Public Schools, 2011a). and analysis of variance (ANOVA) determined that PP
Leadership made the ultimate difference for effective strengthened the relationship between grades and per-
supervision and support. Principals provided common formance on state mathematics assessments, improved
planning and facilitated teacher learning team protocols student achievement on a state mathematics assessment,
to foster collective efficacy; district and state improve- and provided an effective support to students most at-
ment funding afforded additional materials, staff, and risk for failure and subsequent drop out.
stipends; and district leaders organized principals into First, our studies revealed that PP accentuated the
accountability teams for comparing school data trends, association between classroom grades and academic
exchanging leadership innovations, and assessing dis- achievement. Within both the PP cohort and the non-PP
trict instructional needs. cohort, grades had a low-positive association with state
Promoting coherence through a district-wide strategy test scores. For students evaluated on a standards-based
of guaranteeing student competency of key standards, grading approach, the association between grades and
JCPS implemented PP to move dramatic numbers of test scores was stronger than those students evaluated
high school students to proficient performance in one on a traditional grading model (Table 6.1). In addition,
school year. However, institutionalizing this reform all students, minority students, and at-risk students had
across its urban high schools confronted JCPS with a stronger correlations between grades and state assess-
formidable challenge. Fullan (2001) asserted, “25 per- ments when experiencing standards-based grading.
cent of the solution is having good directional ideas; Most importantly for the research on standards-based
75 percent is figuring out how to get there in one local grading within PP, grades became much more of a valid
context after another” (p. 268). Having met the criteria indicator of achievement as measured by success on the
for instructional program coherence, JCPS needed to state assessment. Students who experienced traditional
move its PP reform to scale at the district level. grading methods in both cohorts scored below proficient
nearly 75 percent of the time even though they received
PROJECT PROFICIENCY’S IMPACT ON STUDENT an A or a B in the specific content class. For students
ACHIEVEMENT experiencing standards-based grading, over 55 percent
of students scored above proficient when they received
To demonstrate the effect of PP on student achievement, an A or a B in the content course. As a result, over twice
we conducted three empirical studies that utilized simi- as many students scored proficient or above on the state
lar quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group assessment when successfully scoring above average on
designs (Shadish, Cook, and Campbell, 2002). We a standards-based grading approach as opposed to a tra-
compared the performance of students who received PP ditional grading model. We determined that standards-
against two control groups. The first control group con- based grades were a more valid and reliable predictor of
sisted of students enrolled in Algebra II from the year student achievement than traditional-based grades.
 BRINGING URBAN HIGH SCHOOL REFORM TO SCALE   77

Table 6.1.   Mean State Scores of Cohorts by Classroom Grade

Grade PP-Matha Non-PP-Math b PP-Sciencec

A 47.31 35.40 34.26
B 37.48 28.69 29.50
C 31.18 23.34 24.69
D 26.93 19.96 23.29
U 22.34 16.59 22.04
Note. aState mean = 37.00. bState mean = 36.00. cState mean = 36.00.

Second, through HLM models controlling for prior group (figure 6.1). In addition, 77 percent of PP students
achievement and SES at the student level and SES and with proficient or higher eighth grade results scored pro-
PP implementation at the classroom level, we deter- ficient in eleventh grade, as opposed to only 33 percent
mined that PP increased mathematics achievement and in the non-PP group. Finally, statistically significant
decreased variation between classrooms. In PP class- gains were revealed in state assessment scores from the
rooms, mathematics scores increased nearly one-half of eighth grade to the eleventh grade.
a performance level on the state assessment and yielded
a 22 percent increase in students reaching state-estab- PROJECT PROFICIENCY AS A SCALABLE
lished proficiency benchmarks (table 6.2). We found a INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN
statistically significant decrease in between-classroom
variation in PP classrooms, with estimates diminishing Faced with external demands to rival international aca-
from 31 percent to 14 percent under PP. We concluded demic standards, produce a globally competitive work-
that PP ameliorated the negative effect of classroom force, and rapidly move dramatic numbers of students to
SES on student achievement, and the combination of levels of proficiency, educational practitioners, policy-
improved mean achievement and decreased variation makers, and researchers continue to search for effective
between classes implied that instructional practices urban high school reform scalable at the district level.
changed with large numbers of teachers across PP Results of these three empirical studies of the impact
schools. of PP across eleven high schools in a large urban dis-
Third, empirical evidence suggested that PP impacted trict indicated that teachers more accurately evaluated
the math achievement of students most at risk of drop- student work, classrooms more equally provided in-
ping out of school. We found statistically significant structional quality, and at-risk students significantly in-
increases in mathematics achievement for at-risk PP creased their achievement in mathematics. We suggest
students who met dropout-predictive criteria (Balfanz et that the PP design not only reached every persistently
al., 2007). The study revealed that 14 percent of PP stu- low-achieving high school in JCPS, but also exhibited
dents who scored below proficient on the eighth grade the “multidimensional nature” (Coburn, 2003, p. 3) of
state assessment met the proficiency benchmark in the authentic scalability through its “depth, spread, shift of
eleventh grade, as opposed to 6 percent in the non-PP ownership, and sustainability” (p. 4).

Table 6.2.   Students Meeting Grade 11 Proficiency Benchmarks Based on Prior Achievement
and Project Proficiency Implementation

Non-Proficient
Grade 11 Proficient Grade 11
Cohort N % N %
Non-Proficient Grade 8 NPP 812 69.82 54 4.64
PP 723 56.13 216 16.77
Proficient Grade 8 NPP 161 13.84 136 11.69
PP 71 5.51 278 21.60
Note. NPP = Non-Project Proficiency (N = 1,163). PP = Project Proficiency (N = 1,288).
78    GLENN BAETE, JOE BURKS, MARTY POLLIO, AND CRAIG HOCHBEIN

Figure 6.1.   Comparison of Changes in Student Performance Designations of At-Risk Students Between Cohorts

PP consisted of four facets. First, the district provided guided to recover missed content until they scored 80
a curriculum map, diagnostic assessment, and end-of- percent or higher.
six-weeks summative proficiency assessment for each Depth. The results of these studies revealed that the
grading period based on three key standards or content interrelated dimensions of scale (Coburn, 2003) were
categories. Second, teachers were asked to create tasks evident in each of the four facets of the PP reform. The
and assignments through which students could demon- author noted that a depth in the change of classroom
strate competency for each key standard. Competency practice is necessary to bring substantial educational
was not proficiency or mastery, but a level of under- reform to scale. According to Coburn (2003), “Because
standing that a teacher respected. Teachers evaluated teachers draw on their prior knowledge, beliefs, and ex-
student work with standards-based grading, evaluating periences to interpret and enact reforms, they are likely
student understanding rather than simply averaging to gravitate toward approaches that are congruent with
numbers. Third, with the help of district resource teach- their prior practices, focus on surface manifestations,
ers, curriculum specialists, and local administrators, rather than deep pedagogical principles” (Coburn,
teachers collaboratively and collectively sought to guide 2003, p. 4). The change to a standards-based grading
100 percent of their students to demonstrate compe- approach within PP forced teachers to make profound
tency for each of the three key standards by the time the changes to pedagogical principles that had dominated
proficiency assessment was administered. The district their classroom practice for decades. The four main
provided a web-based, electronic system for teachers to tenets of PP aided teachers in their transition to a
collect and track results of diagnostic, formative, and standards-based grading approach and led to “deep and
summative assessments. Fourth, students scoring below consequential change in classroom practice” (Coburn,
80 percent on a six-weeks proficiency assessment were 2003, p. 4).
 BRINGING URBAN HIGH SCHOOL REFORM TO SCALE   79

Based on the data from this research, the depth of in- to evaluate student progress on the three key standards,
structional change caused by a move to standards-based grade students on their attainment of those standards,
grading led to an increased association between grades and provide opportunities after the grading period to
and achievement scores. The four main tenets of PP cre- recover missed standards and improve student grades.
ated conditions for depth in instructional change. First, Through the implementation of standards-based grading
math curriculum was condensed to three key standards in these schools, the four facets of PP provided the depth
for each six weeks. Prior to PP, the math curriculum was necessary to bring this instructional reform to scale.
driven by state core content and district pacing guides Spread. PP created conditions for spread between
that led to coverage of many topics with little emphasis classrooms and across eleven high schools in JCPS. Co-
on mastery of key standards. In order to implement burn’s (2003) scalability framework identified the need
a standards-based grading approach, PP established for schools to “move beyond the spread of activities,
three key standards for each grading period. PP enabled materials, and structures to the propagation of ‘beliefs,
teachers to evaluate students on their attainment of the norms, and principles’” (p. 7). Through guarantee-
three key standards for each six weeks. ing competency in three key standards, PP challenged
Second, teachers created tasks that would demon- teachers and school leaders to change existing beliefs
strate competency of the three key standards. Teachers about teaching and learning. In the new context, all
could no longer use a hodgepodge of factors to deter- students were required to reach a degree of competency
mine a student’s grade for the six-week period. Every prior to taking an end-of-unit proficiency assessment,
task or assignment given to students directly measured thus requiring teachers to own the achievement results
their competency in one of the key standards for the for each of their students. As opposed to prior practices
six weeks. At the conclusion of each grading period, that assigned low grades for students not demonstrating
students were evaluated solely on their attainment of competency and the continuing with course content, PP
the three key standards established by PP. This move to required teachers and their professional learning com-
standards-based grading was the change in pedagogical munities to create instructional activities and targeted
principles that established the depth required to move interventions to ensure competency prior to the end of a
educational reform to scale. six-week grading period. The shared responsibility for
Third, and possibly most important, teachers guaran- students learning created conditions for substantive col-
teed the competency of every student in the three key laboration among teachers.
standards. Teachers had to collaboratively find ways The combination of new instructional practices and
to establish interventions for students who did not at- supporting structures reflected a change in beliefs in
tain proficiency in any of the key standards. Diagnostic PP schools. Professional collaboration became a new
and formative assessments provided data for teachers and highly valued norm for PP teachers. During formal
on student mastery of the three key standards for the and structured PLC meetings, teams of teachers met to
grading period. Without the pedagogical change to review learning targets and plan instructional activities;
standards-based grading, guaranteed competency of the examine student work to identify trends, needs, and
standards would be impossible. Teachers had to evalu- instructional strategies; review diagnostic, formative,
ate the achievement level of students through standards- and proficiency data; and plan for school-wide stu-
based grading in order to guarantee their competency in dent interventions. This increase in collective efficacy
the key standards. represents the spread of deep changes in instructional
Fourth, PP provided a fail-safe opportunity for stu- practices across classrooms and schools in Jefferson
dents to recover any standard that they had not mastered County. We find additional support for this finding. Af-
at the conclusion of the grading period. If the student still ter controlling for prior achievement and individual and
had not met proficiency standards by this time, teach- classroom SES, PP implementation decreased varia-
ers would provide remediation opportunities in order to tion among classrooms by approximately 55 percent.
guarantee competency. By establishing a depth of in- Given that PP was implemented in 110 classrooms in
structional change within all schools through implemen- eleven schools, reductions in between-classroom varia-
tation of standards-based grading, teachers were able tion from 31 percent to 14 percent suggested that PP’s
80    GLENN BAETE, JOE BURKS, MARTY POLLIO, AND CRAIG HOCHBEIN

changes in instruction, norms, beliefs, and principles to implement the reform design. With results from the
created conditions for the spread of depth across JCPS study reporting that PP increased mean achievement,
classrooms. Carroll (2009) observed the futility of in- strengthened the association between classroom grades
dividual teachers working alone and their inability to and achievement, reduced variation between classrooms
“know and do everything to meet the needs of thirty across the district, and improved achievement for the dis-
diverse students every day throughout the school year” tricts most at-risk students, we propose that the elements
(p. 10). The author called for schools to become places of PP spread across classrooms and schools in JCPS.
that value and take full advantage of teamwork that Shift of ownership. By bringing coherence to the
is part of high-performance organizations across the four facets of PP, JCPS created conditions for the shift
world. Through implementing the four key elements of of ownership of reform from the district to teachers and
PP, strong collaboration created spread among teachers, students. To genuinely move to scale, Coburn (2003) as-
ensured competency for all students, and deepened the serted that a reform must shift from external to internal
instructional knowledge base. “authority for the reform held by those who have the
In addition to identified increases in the number of capacity to sustain, spread, and deepen reform prin-
schools implementing a reform, Coburn (2003) identi- ciples” (p. 7). Although a literature review revealed that
fied spread as to what extent district policies, proce- effective urban high school reform for at-risk students
dures, and professional development reflect a reform included early middle school intervention, whole-school
effort. Leaders in JCPS challenged schools to examine high school reform, and a supportive learning environ-
traditional approaches to teaching and create a new ment for the current generation of students in the desks
instructional approach that “guarantees competency” in front of us, these reforms were too late, too slow, or
for all students through an emphasis on key standards too little to immediately impact significant numbers of
and changes in assessments, interventions, and support at-risk students. However, without the luxury of previ-
mechanisms. As opposed to the traditional instruc- ous interventions or a prescribed reform provided by
tional planning activities where individual teachers and the district, JCPS teachers in eleven PLA high schools
schools review core content curriculum documents and significantly increased math achievement by at-risk stu-
create learning objectives and supporting activities, dents who experienced PP.
PP shifted the curriculum alignment responsibilities Through a “reconceptualization of proprietorship”
to the district and gave teachers a clearly articulated (McLaughlin and Mitra, 2001, p. 317), PP shifted
and aligned set of learning standard categories for each from an external to an internal reform by narrowing
grading period. District leaders promoted the spread of the state’s growing number of content standards to
the PP design across schools by creating diagnostic and three key standards each grading period, providing
proficiency assessments aligned to three key standards corresponding diagnostic and summative assessments,
in the PP design and creating district-wide professional and holding schools accountable for results rather than
development on formative assessment, instructional activity. Teachers were recruited to help identify the
strategies, and professional collaboration. standards, create the assessments, and own the design.
PP was a unified approach to learning that changed Once schools received the key standards and assess-
pedagogical and philosophical beliefs and reflected the ments, local administrators and teachers determined
“normative coherence” that Coburn (2003) identified as the sub-content and learning targets they believed best
a necessary element to reach scale. With eleven schools prepared students to understand each key standard and
and 110 classrooms participating in PP, district officials aligned lessons with the learning targets. Each school
operated as a strategic agent charged with creating cur- was allowed the flexibility to determine its own learning
riculum and support materials for teachers in addition targets and was accountable for summative assessment
to allocating existing technological and technical as- results rather than adherence to prescribed sub-content.
sistance resources to support the effort. Furthermore, by When principals led course-common learning teams
providing opportunities for teachers and school leaders of teachers to compare assessment results, and district
to participate in PP-specific professional development, officials guided teams of principals to collaboratively
district leaders deepened an individual school’s capacity examine summative test scores, practitioners borrowed
 BRINGING URBAN HIGH SCHOOL REFORM TO SCALE   81

and exchanged lessons and learning targets and increas- strongly suggested that student reflection count for 20
ingly constructed, owned, and helped spread the most percent of the final grade each grading period. Teachers
effective curriculum. were allowed to collaboratively design means for stu-
PP shifted ownership of instructional development dents to reflect about progress toward competency and
by creating conditions for teachers to evaluate student misunderstandings of standards. Although reflection de-
competency using standards-based grading of assign- signs varied across the PP schools, after the diagnostic
ments and tasks. “Adapting to local contextual needs” assessments and daily formative assignments, students
(Datnow and Stringfield, 2000, p. 195), teachers were were guided at every site to own their own learning
free to define what competency looked like in student by describing where they were on learning continua
work and the district provided a web-based system for toward competencies, requesting assistance by specific
recording individual student competency for each key standard, and realizing that below standard work meant
standard. The web-based program lifted the burden of “not yet” instead of failure. In fact, due to the PP fail-
grading from teachers by ultimately converting compe- safe requirement that students must eventually score
tencies into daily grades for students. The knowledge 80 percent or higher on each six-weeks summative
required for PP reform rested with the practitioners who assessment, teachers and students collaboratively dis-
were allowed to create student work through which stu- cussed ways to move from remediation to recovery of
dents demonstrated understanding, design lessons that competency for each key standard, building a “sense of
prepared students for those tasks, and evaluate whether community that empowered students” (Wilkins, 2008).
students met a level of acceptable competency through PP shifted ownership of assessment to teachers and
the tasks. Scoring student work and averaging grades students and created conditions for expected, possible,
using a point system require a good calculator and at probable, and inevitable learning for students most at-
least a teacher’s aide, but evaluating student understand- risk of dropping out.
ing for competency demanded decision-making and Sustainability. Although we examined the impact
ownership by the instructor. of PP after only one year of reform, educational practi-
By establishing the PP goal of guaranteed com- tioners, policymakers, and researchers should consider
petency of key standards each grading period, JCPS the parallels of PP with HRO principles as evidence for
shifted ownership of assessment to practitioners and the sustainability of PP. Hargreaves and Fink (2006)
students. In addition to acquiring responsibility for concluded that secondary school reforms were typically
establishing learning targets, designing lessons, and unsustainable. However, since 1996, the Neath-Port
evaluating student tasks for understanding, teachers Talbot (NTE) Local Education Authority in an eco-
assumed responsibility for student learning and dem- nomically disadvantaged area in southern Wales, Great
onstration of competency before the end-of-six-weeks Britain, has sustained its implementation of HRO prin-
summative assessment. Teachers moved from indepen- ciples, and after equaling the Welsh national average in
dence and isolation in their classrooms to dependence 2000, moved its test scores in 2007 considerably above
on one another and eventual interdependence to col- the national average (Stringfield et al., 2010). Confi-
lectively reinvent their instruction, assessment, and dence for the sustainability of PP lies in its alignment
intervention practices (Allensworth and Easton, 2007). with many of the customized and sustained HRO prin-
Administrators provided and facilitated learning team ciples implemented by NTE including the urgency to
opportunities for teachers through creating common succeed, a finite set of shared goals, powerful databases,
planning time and “mechanisms for ongoing learning” a balance of tight and loose standard operation proce-
(Coburn, 2003, p. 8) as opposed to the usual checklists, dures (SOP), and collegial decision making (Stringfield
required meetings, and completion of compliance docu- et al., 2008; Stringfield et al., 2010).
ments. Teachers owned student results, relied on one The PP goal to guarantee competency of key stan-
another’s expertise, and developed an unprecedented dards by each student produced an HRO-like urgency
collective efficacy in JCPS high schools. unlike previously implemented high school reforms in
In addition, the PP goal of guaranteed competency JCPS, and aligning district curriculum maps, common
elicited student ownership of learning. The district assessments, and intervention supports with three key
82    GLENN BAETE, JOE BURKS, MARTY POLLIO, AND CRAIG HOCHBEIN

standards each grading period matched the HRO prin- American Institutes for Research. (2006). CSCQ center on
ciple of establishing a clear and finite set of goals. The middle and high school comprehensive school reform mod-
JCPS web-based tool for tracking diagnostic, formative, els. Washington, DC: Author.
and summative assessment data corresponded to the Berends, M., Bodilly, S., and Kirby, S. N. (2002). Looking
HRO practice of gathering and effectively using data. back over a decade of whole-school reform: The experi-
ence of new American schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 84(2),
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168–175.
standards-based grading, and ensured learning, bal-
Bodilly, S. J., Glennan, T. K., Kerr, K. A., and Galegher,
anced by looseness of demands for processes and local J. R. (2004). Expanding the reach of education reforms:
implementation details, reflected the HRO recommen- Perspectives from leaders in the scale-up of educational
dations for complementary district-school SOP. Finally, interventions. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation.
the PP shift of ownership for decision-making about Bryk, A. S. (2009). Support a science of performance im-
processes to improve curriculum, instruction, assess- provement. Phi Delta Kappan, 90(8), 597–600.
ment, resources, and SOP affirm the most convincing Bryk, A. S. (2010). Organizing schools for improvement. Phi
parallel with HRO principles, allowing for continuous Delta Kappan, 91(7), 23–28.
improvements from practitioners who are “flaw find- Carroll, T. (2009). The next generation of learning teams. Phi
ers and process/program improvers” (Stringfield et al., Delta Kappan, 91(2), 8–13.
2010, p. 15). Childress, S., Elmore, R., and Grossman, A. (2006). How to
Results of this study of PLA high schools in a large manage urban school districts. Harvard Business Review,
84(11), 55–68.
urban district indicated a strong relationship between
Childress, S., Elmore, R., Grossman, A., and Akinola, M.
PP and teacher grading practices, classroom impact,
(2004). Note on the PELP coherence framework. Pub-
and student achievement of students at-risk of dropping lic Education Leadership Project at Harvard University.
out. We found significant results across all eleven high Retrieved from www.kasa.org/professionaldevelopment /
schools that implemented PP, and the reform meets the documents/PELPFramework.pdf.
scalability litmus test for depth, spread, shift of owner- Coalition of Essential Schools. (2011). The CES Com-
ship, and sustainability. PP principles required no addi- mon Principles. Retrieved from www.essentialschools.org/
tional money, staff, or purchased programs and relied on items/4.
“strong systems rather than strong or unusually effective Coburn, C. E. (2003). Rethinking scale: Moving beyond num-
people” (Reynolds, Creemers, Stringfield, Teddlie, and bers to deep and lasting change. Educational Researcher,
Schaffer, 2002, p. 289), increasing its probability for 32(6), 3–12.
scalability and sustainability. Although a combination Consortium on Chicago School Research (2010). Chicago
of factors influenced the achievement gains associated high school redesign initiative: Schools, students, and out-
comes. Chicago, IL: Author.
with PP, the results of this study provide hope and de-
Crandall, D. P., Loucks-Horsley, S., Bauchner, J.E., Schmidt,
mand for further research for PP’s potential to establish
W.B., Eiseman, J.W., and Cox, P. L. (1982). People, poli-
high school reform to scale in an urban district. cies and practices: Examining the chain of school improve-
ment (Vols. 1–10). Andover, MA: The Network.
Cuban, L. (1984). How teachers taught: Constancy and
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 CHAPTER 7

Developing Teacher Leadership for Equity in Urban Schools

H. Richard Milner IV, Judson Laughter, and Joshua Childs

When thinking about leadership in education, we typi- ity is group-based and quantitative. Equity can be applied
cally think about principals, superintendents, or even to groups or to individuals; it is qualitative in that equity
coaches as those who lead; teachers and teaching are not is tied to notions of justice” (p. 23). Equality means the
who and what come to mind. However, the authors of same thing for every person in a partcular place at a
this chapter have observed in our work in many schools particular time. Equity, on the other hand, requires judg-
that those in traditional leadership positions can be so ments about whether a given state of affairs is just.
detached from the realities of what happens inside the For instance, equity in education may mean that we
classroom, especially urban1 classrooms, that they are are attempting to provide students, regardless of their
not well equipped to support teacher practices that shape racial, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, or SES background,
students’ learning opportunities; this leadership detach- with what they need to succeed—not necessarily the
ment has only become increasingly the case as outside exact same goals and visions across different environ-
pressures related to accountability further remove ad- ments. Secada further explained,
ministrative attention away from the classroom. For
The essence of equity lies in our ability to acknowledge
instance, principals can be so inundated with handling
that even though our actions are in accord with a set of
bureaucratic expectations, pressures, and paperwork rules, the results of those actions may still be unjust.
that it can be difficult for them to support teacher devel- Equity goes beyond following the rules . . . equity
opment in instruction or even discipline practices. gauges the results of actions directly against standards
In this chapter, we argue for the necessity of teacher of justice. (p. 23)
leadership—in, from, and beyond the classroom—to
cultivate practices that support equity in urban schools. In this sense, although related equity and equality do not
To be clear, we are suggesting that teacher leadership have the same meaning; equity specifically addresses
should be a central goal of teacher preparation programs how what is necessary for success in one school or dis-
and professional development opportunities in order to trict or with one student may be meaningfully different
prepare teachers to teach and lead in urban classrooms. from the next.
We explore what teacher leadership means, how it can This is particularly important in the context of urban
be cultivated in social contexts, and how equity in par- classrooms that include wide ranges of diversity among
ticular should be the guiding ideal of teacher leaders in the 6.9 million students, as well as in the context of
urban classrooms. To build our argument, in the next urban schools that are often under-resourced. We press
sections, we define educational equity and then lay out the need for teacher leadership related to equity because
a synthesized definition of teacher leadership. it allows teacher leaders to focus on specific aspects of
P-12 student development and learning; it provides an
ideal toward which teachers might lead others.
DEFINING EQUITY
A LOOK AT TEACHER LEADERSHIP
Secada (1989) pointed to a major difference between
equality and equity despite a history of being used inter- There is an important body of conceptual and empiri-
changeably: “Though these constructs are related, equal- cal literature concerning teacher learning and practices
85
86    H. RICHARD MILNER IV, JUDSON LAUGHTER, AND JOSHUA CHILDS

with a focus on equity (Brown, 2012; Ladson-Billings, Drawing from research in business, Bowman (2004),
1999; Milner, 2008; Sleeter, 2008), but little estab- building on Bennis and Thomas’s (2002) list of quali-
lished research or conceptual literature concerns teacher ties shared by leaders emerging from a study of multiple
leadership with an equity focus. Indeed, there are sev- generations focused on what a leader can do to develop
eral practitioner-oriented guides describing teachers as an effective community; however, this research did not
leaders, but they often focus on teachers stepping into necessarily focus on a more distributive understanding
leadership roles, such as team leaders or department of leadership. Similarly, Bowman (2004) built on Ben-
heads (e.g., Pellicer and Anderson, 1995); even at the nis and Nanus’s (1997) list of key leadership abilities,
university level, departments of educational leadership but these are cast only as management skills: manage-
are associated more with policy and administration than ment of attention, meaning, trust, and self. From these,
classroom practice. We found it difficult to locate an Bowman (2004) developed his own conceptualization,
agreed-upon and/or coherent definition of teacher lead- addressing teachers as leaders (see table 7.1):
ership with an equity focus within education.
Education leaders guide their colleagues by engaging
The research literature addressing educational leader-
in collective conversations, invoking symbolic gestures
ship with a focus on equity (often labeled social justice)
that reveal relationship, modeling professionalism be-
tends to consider only those members of a school in
yond the label of one’s role, championing evocative
leadership positions, not teachers. While social justice ideas in both the classroom and the workplace, and
takes on numerous interpretations (Shoho, Merchant, being “in influence” as opposed to being “in control.”
and Lugg, 2005) especially in practice, it has become a (p. 188)
focus for educational researchers, practitioners, and pol-
icymakers (Jean-Marie, Normore, and Brooks, 2009). This definition of how teacher leaders lead is mirrored
However, research has shown that too many school across several other conceptualizations of teacher leader
leaders are not exposed to social justice issues, training, roles, responsibilities, and realities (e.g., Lieberman and
or approaches in leadership development and prepara- Miller, 2005). In fact, James (1997) even reversed the
tion programs (Jean-Marie et al., 2009; Pohland and process and developed a definition of a quality teacher
Carlson, 1993; Shoho, 2006). to support a definition of quality leadership.
If preparation programs, both teacher and leadership, The commonality across all these definitions is the
devalue social justice and diversity among their course focus on community and relationship (Fullan, 1994;
content, faculty, and students, then leaders will be less Lambert, 2003; Little, 1990). It is here, we argue, that
prepared to confront and address equity in schools and teacher leadership must be grounded, particularly if it
communities (Rusch, 2004). Theoharis (2007) argued seeks to be applicable to teaching for equity in urban
that good leadership, with equity-minded principles, schools. Urban classrooms and schools require specific
focused on creating successful schools that improve attention and intention toward developing and maintain-
the educational and human condition of marginalized ing relationships in a society that understands education
students. Addressing the needs of racially and socioeco- as a competitive field following business models of in-
nomically diverse student populations requires school vestment and return. The recent onslaught of school “re-
leaders to develop professional identities that support form” literature and programs from outside education
diversity, equality (when appropriate), equity, and in- has attempted to forego this focus on community and
clusiveness (Evans, 2007). relationship, which is grounded in the socio-political

Table 7.1.   Teacher Leadership Characteristics

Bowman (2004) Crowther, Kaagan, Ferguson, & Hann (2002)

• Collective conversations • 
Convey convictions about a better world
• Symbolic gestures  Relationship Professionalism beyond • 
Authenticity
role • 
Facilitate communities of learning
• Evocative ideas • 
Confront barriers
• “In influence” • 
Translate ideas into sustainable systems of action
• 
Nurture culture of success
 DEVELOPING TEACHER LEADERSHIP FOR EQUITY IN URBAN SCHOOLS      87

context of schools and education, in favour of standard- Kaagan, Ferguson, and Hann (2002) heralded the emer-
ization, neoliberal approaches, and business models of gence of a new paradigm with their Teachers as Lead-
education. ers Framework. Although somewhat philosophical, by
For example, in citing a Carnegie Foundation study, building on Katzenmeyer and Moller’s (1996) meta-
Barth (2007) outlined ten areas where teacher leader- phor of Awakening the Sleeping Giant, Crowther and
ship was most needed and concurrently most lacking. colleagues (2002, pp. 4–5) presented six activities for
We provide a complete list here to then address how teacher leaders that might achieve real education reform
each area can be undermined by recent “educational (see table 7.1). These activities specifically address di-
reforms”: versity in urban classrooms, the inequitable funding of
urban schools, and need for relationships in dense urban
 1. Choosing textbooks and instructional materials environments.
 2. Shaping the curriculum While we believe the Teachers as Leaders frame-
 3. Setting standards for student behavior work offers a strong response to issues that plague urban
 4. Deciding whether students are tracked into spe- schools in particular, we recognize that institutionalized
cial classes structures can work to reject principles of leadership:
 5. Designing staff development and in-service pro-
grams Teacher leadership still faces heavy odds today. It must
 6. Setting promotion and retention policies compete not only with vested interests in traditional as-
 7. Deciding school budgets sumptions about leadership but also with schools that
 8. Evaluating teacher performance are still a bit uncomfortable with the idea of teacher
 9. Selecting new teachers leaders. (Ackerman and Mackenzie, 2007, p. x)
10.  Selecting new administrators (p. 10)
Both within and beyond the urban school, teacher
leadership is needed now more than ever with the emer-
The tri-partite “reforms” in standards, teacher evalu-
gence of non-educational entities vying for control of
ation, and politics we are currently experiencing only
schools. In the next section of this chapter, we outline
provides stronger barriers to teacher leaders in every
several specific areas related to equity that we believe
one of these areas.
are essential for teacher leadership in urban schools.
It can be argued that Common Core State Standards
and associated assessments hinders teacher leadership
in numbers 1, 2, and 4 by removing planning, instruc- TEACHER LEADERSHIP FOR EQUITY
tion, and assessment possibilities and de-professionaliz-
ing teachers who were once trusted to make decisions Teachers need to know a range of information—from
in these areas. The arrival of new evaluation models how to best organize their classroom to maximize
for teachers (like TEAM or TIGER) can hinder teacher student learning to how to best handle discipline is-
leadership in numbers 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9 by expecting sues when they present themselves in the classroom. In
“effective teaching” to look like, and be graded by, the addition, teachers must know their subject matter and
same set of a priori designed rubrics. understand contextual idiosyncrasies as they teach that
Likewise, increasing political pressure placed on content. However, teacher education