ABSTRACT
In this chapter we posit that to successfully engage the challenges of today’s urban public schools, a new type of education leadership will be in high demand. First, leadership must shift from charismatic, positional, and transactional approaches to an approach grounded on a twin vision that includes both equity and adequacy. We argue that, for our emerging multiethnic democracy, a floor condition must be present in all schools: the unequivocal provision of a basic, high-quality education for all youth and children. Specifically, fully adequate education must be put in place for youth and children who—owing to racialized conditions, economic poverty, and gender, linguistic, and cultural discrimination—have been rendered disadvantaged in today’s school systems.
