ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the leadership of urban schools, how its uniqueness and complexity have created the need for a different type of leader and a new way to think about the practice and preparation of these leaders. The importance of leadership has been well established. The discourse in education, in fact, has moved from a focus on management to one of leadership (Earley & Weindling, 2004), in part because of the fi nding that the effect of leadership on student learning is small but nevertheless signifi cant (Leithwood & Louis, 2012). The importance of leadership, however, must be connected to the role context plays in leadership practice and effectiveness. Hallinger and colleagues (1996) stated, “Researchers have given inadequate attention to the infl uence that the organizational context exerts on educational administrators” (p. 529). Day et al. (2011) pointed to research connecting leadership effects with features from school, teacher, leader, student, district, and national contexts. Urban contexts are a particularly salient infl uence on the practice of school leadership.
