This article addresses what we are calling "the gaps," the divergent and contextual understandings of "opportunity gap" and "achievement gap" evident in interviews with principals and school district leaders. Drawing from a sample of 22 interviews in urban, inner-ring suburban, and outer-ring suburban schools in a…

Educational researchers, leadership, and policymakers have had the privileged voices and place from which to theorize and address educational inequities. But for some exceptions, nondominant families have been relegated to participation in school-centric "parent involvement" activities. Drawing from a participatory design-based research…

Aspiring school leaders must be equipped with skill sets to facilitate the critical examination of district policies that reproduce inequities. Policies such as school choice, which have racial and socioeconomic implications for educational opportunity, require leaders to operate from a social justice identity while seeking to enhance their sense…

Describes two new forms of employment discrimination found at the informal job contact level and suggests that use of informal contacts continues to be a major barrier for women and people of color. Results are based on 13 interviews and a survey of approximately 280 school superintendents. (SLD)

Using statistical data collected during a 30-year period, the article reports on the significant movement of females into all of the line administrative positions in the largest school districts in the country (by student population) since the passage of Title IX with one notable exception, that of superintendent. The position of superintendent…

Data from 43 large urban school districts are used to examine the progress women have made in securing line administrative positions since the passage of Title IX 20 years ago. Women have made substantial progress and are drawing near to 50% of such positions in urban, although not rural or suburban, districts. (SLD)