An Urban School Leader's Approach to School Improvement: Toward Contextually Responsive Leadership

This case study examines the leadership practices and actions of an urban high school principal who faced many challenges, but worked diligently to improve student achievement and school climate over a 3-year period. Significant improvements were made by using elements of Distributed Leadership, Professional Learning Communities, and Social Justice Leadership. The authors suggest that contextually responsive leadership practices rather than one best practice present better solutions to the complexity in urban school leadership.