Urban school superintendents face unprecedented challenges. They must ensure that all students achieve a high level of performance despite a lack of resources, the intractable problems of race and poverty, a chaotic governance structure, and the often conflicting demands of teachers, parents, unions, and the community. This important book, edited by the co-directors of the prestigious Harvard Urban Superintendents Program (USP), explores the ways in which superintendents can make a difference in the lives of each child, every day, by being knowledgeable about and driven by what happens in the classroom.

About the AASA, Education Week, and Education Week Press CD Contents Preface: The Superintendent of Learning: A New Way of Leading School Systems Acknowledegments ONE The Urban Supertintendents Program Leadership Framework TWO A Superintendent's Entry THREE Communicating the Vision FOUR Strategies Planning FIVE Instructional Improvement SIX School Boards and Unions SEVEN Realigning Recourses EIGHT Community Engagement NINE Scaling Up TEN Sustaining Improvement over Time ELEVEN Exiting the Superintendency Epilogue: Demography Is Not Destiny! About the Authors and Subjects of the Case Studies What's on the CD and How to Use it Index