Real Leaders, Real Schools tells the stories of five urban public school principals who led their schools through profound and transformative changes. In each of these cases, their efforts resulted in dramatic improvements in student achievement--improvements that occurred within the current environment of high-stakes tests.

The revealing and often gripping narratives that form the heart of this remarkable book offer unprecedented insights into the meaning and practice of effective school leadership. The stories themselves are often inspiring but they are never idealized. All of these principals met with frustrations as well as successes, setbacks as well as breakthroughs. All regularly reassessed their policies and practices, and all acknowledged--and learned from--their errors along the way. Yet all believed in their staffs and their students, and all found innovative ways to transform and improve their schools. These are true stories of successful leadership against enormous odds. They provide countless lessons for today's school leaders and all who are committed to education reform.
About the Author:

Gerald C. Leader is Professor Emeritus at Boston University. He has researched and taught leadership for more than thirty years in educational, nonprofit, and private-sector organizations. After earning an undergraduate degree in engineering, he completed his MBA and doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Business. He has been on the graduate business faculties of Harvard University, Tulane University, Boston University, and Stanford University, where he also served on the faculty of the Graduate School of Education.

Currently, Professor Leader directs and teaches in the Educator Leadership Institute, which he founded in 2002 to prepare educational leaders for public and charter schools in the metropolitan Boston area. The Institute, a program within the Educational Collaborative of Greater Boston, is a self-sustaining, nonprofit organization preparing teacher candidates through graduate coursework and an intensive internship for principal and director licensure.

Amy Stern has been on staff at the Edward Everett Elementary School in Boston from 2002 to the present. She served for four years as special assistant to Principal Kathleen Flannery (Chapter 5) and is currently the director of School Programs. Prior to working in the Boston Public Schools, Ms. Stern was a research assistant at Education Development Center, Inc., in Newton, Massachusetts. She earned her BA in psychology from Vassar College and her EdM. in School Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.