Research shows that Black and Latino students continue to perform significantly below their white counterparts in academic achievement. How school leaders support teachers who work with the Black and Latino students comprising this gap was the premise of this study. This study was conducted to understand the role of school leaders in supporting teachers' acquisition of early reading skills, (particularly phonemic awareness and phonics mastery) through professional development as that relates to student achievement in reading among Black and Latino students in grades K-2. This study focused on four research questions: (1) What is the role of the principal in the planning and execution of early reading skills professional development for teachers of students in grades K-2? (2) To what extent do school leaders apply the following aspects of the Consensus View of professional development to the implementation and execution of professional development for teachers who are instructors of reading for students in grades K-2? (1) Focuses on a well-articulated mission or purpose anchored in student learning of core disciplines and skills; (2) Focuses on specific issues of curriculum and pedagogy; (3) Involves active participation of school leaders and staff; (4) Involves models of effective practice; and (5) Uses assessment and evaluation (Elmore, 2002). (3) How do the principals and the teachers perceive the effectiveness of the Professional Development (PD) for K-2 teachers of reading as having made an impact on the success of students by the time they take the NYS ELA examination in Grade 3? and (4) What do principals and teachers perceive to be the intructional factors that contribute to the success or lack of ELA proficiency of students as measured by the NYS Grade 3 ELA exam? A convenient sample from a NYC urban school district with over 85% enrollment of Black and Latino students was selected for this study. NYS data for the percentage of Black and Latino student enrollment and third grade ELA proficiency levels were analyzed and five principals agreed to participate in the study. Two participating schools were high performing and three were low performing in NYS ELA grade three proficiency. Each principal also allowed for a focus group of teachers in their school to be interviewed. Interviews of principals were separate from teachers and conducted in a private space. Eleven interview paralleled questions were designed by the researcher and aligned to The Consensus View (Elmore, 2002) theoretical framework for professional development. Findings in response to question one indicates that although principals did not plan or conduct professional development that supported teachers acquisition of early reading skills, they supported the coaches who did this work. In alignment with research question two, five aspects of The Consensus View theoretical framework examined in this study showed that principals partially adhered to three aspects, focusing on specific issues of curriculum and pedagogy, active participation of school leaders and staff and assessment and evaluation of data. In response to research question three, findings also showed that principals and teachers did not have a way of measuring whether the PD provided had any impact on the success of students by the time they took the NYS ELA examination in third grade. Responses to the final research question showed that participants did not know what instructional factors contributed to the success or lack of ELA proficiency of students as measured by the NYS third grade examination but that instead students were blamed and excuses were made for the students reading failure. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]