HIGH PERFORMING LEADERS

High Performing Leaders

High Performing Leaders

High-Poverty High Performing Schools

Citizens, politicians, and journalists are correct, at least about the importance of schools. Education largely and increasingly determines an individual's job choice and income (Danziger & Reed, 1999). It more and more determines whom one will marry (Kalmijn, 1991; Mare, 1991). It has more impact than any other factor, possibly excepting wealth, on whether one participates in politics, what one believes politically, and how much political influence one has (Verba, 2001; Verba, Schlozman, & Brady, 1995). It is the arena in which the United States has sought to overcome racial domination and class hierarchy, to turn immigrants into Americans, to transform children into responsible citizens, to create and maintain our democracy (Cremin, 1988; Gutmann, 1987; Khiger, 1975; Spring, 2000; Tyack, 1974).

In many ways public schools in the United States have responded to these aspirations. Compared with a few decades ago, dropout rates have declined (National Center for Education Statistics, 2002b, tables 108, 109); children with disabilities are in school buildings rather than institutions that could be described as "human warehouses" (Braddock & Parish, 2001; McDonnell, McLaughlin, & Morison, 1997; National Center for Education Statistics, 2002b: tables 53, 110); resources are more equally distributed (Education Week, 2002; Reed, 2001; Rothstein, 2000); Black children are not required by law to attend inferior schools for fewer hours a day and shorter school years than White children (Orfield, 1978; Salomone, 1986; Tushnet, 1987); overall achievement scores are up (National Center for Education Statistics, 2002b, tables 112, 115, 124, 125). Most importantly perhaps, the gap in nationally-recognized achievement test scores between students with poorly- and well-educated parents has declined since the 1970s (National Center for Education Statistics, 2002b, tables 112, 124).

Yet this progress has met limits. Hispanics drop out much more frequently than others, as do poor students and students in large urban schools (Driscoll, 1999; Rumberger & Thomas, 2000; Hauser, Simmons, & Pager, 2001; National Center for Education Statistics, 2002b, tables 107, 108). Achievement scores changed little in the 1990s; the gaps between Black and White achievement, and between the scores of the highest and lowest achievers, have remained static or even risen over that decade (National Center for Education Statistics, 2002b; tables 112, 113, 124, 125). Disadvantaged children continue to score roughly ten percent below the national average on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests while advantaged children score several percent above (author's calculations from data in National Center for Education Statistics, 2000c). Some urban schools seem to teach very little despite teachers' and students' valiant efforts (Anyon, 1997; Education Week, 1998; Hayward, 2000; Henig, Hula, On-, & Pedescleaux, 1999).

Most importantly, adults' life chances depend increasingly on attaining higher education, but the number of young adults completing college has stalled since the 1970s and class background is as important as ever in determining who attends and finishes college (Ellwood & Kane, 2000; Kane, 2001). Over three-quarters of well-off young adults go straight from high school to college, compared with half ...