Educational Leadership Essay

Over the past three decades’ educational leadership has been in search of ways to increase student literacy in urban middle schools in the southeast sections of the District of Columbia. The quest to closing achievement gaps in urban school districts have and will always be an on-going issue for educational leadership (Daly & Chrispells, 2008). Findings from research studies suggest that school leadership accounts for fully one quarter of total school effects on pupils, making it second only to classroom instruction among school-based factors affecting student achievement (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson & Wahlstrom, 2004).

There are certain challenges that middle school principals face that pertain only to these middle school principals due to

xii).

DRMLL is three dimensional: “(1) responsiveness to the developmental needs of middle grades students; (2) responsiveness to the developmental needs of faculty who support learning for middle grades students; and (3) responsiveness to the development of the middle school itself as a unique, innovative entity” (Brown & Anfara, 2002, p. 149).

Each dimension included structures and practices of exemplary middle grades education, such as building a culture of community and a focus on curriculum, instruction, and assessment. For the “responsiveness to students” dimension, principals must understand the intellectual, physical, psychological, social, moral, and ethical characteristics of young adolescents. Principals must also believe that all students can succeed. Understanding the need to connect educational administration to teaching and learning, and governing democratically and collaboratively are examples of practices presented for the “responsive to faculty”