ABSTRACT
Leaders in high-performing urban schools, like the principal at Horace Mann Elementary, helped stakeholders understand their specific roles and responsibilities in establishing a positive transformational culture, challenging curricula, and engaging, effective instruction. Generating clarity about the most critical aspects of roles and responsibilities takes careful thought and precise communication. It is important to understand that leaders typically addressed the challenge of communicating roles and expectations in ways that simultaneously addressed the aforementioned leadership challenge of influencing stakeholders' desire to change and improve. The time leaders spent in classrooms was utilized to notice, highlight, and acknowledge teachers' efforts to assume critical roles and responsibilities. Leaders helped stakeholders develop clear understandings of critical roles and responsibilities by prioritizing what was most important and de-prioritizing other tasks. To minimize confusion about what was most important, leaders made clear the few key roles and responsibilities they expected stakeholders to assume. At the same time, leaders reduced the emphasis on other matters and responsibilities.
