This study was designed to generate an awareness of the differences between school administrators' and teachers' perceptions of instructional leadership practices towards implementation of differentiated instruction. Data were collected from 34 middle school administrators and 171 teachers from a major metropolitan school district in the southeast United States using a researcher-designed survey. The study found that teachers were not in complete agreement with administrators in 4 of 6 subsets including the total average of all subsets. Teachers perceived survey statements about supervision and evaluation of instruction, protection of instructional time, providing incentives for teachers, and providing professional development as not being experienced to the same extent as believed by administrators to be in practice. A high degree of disagreement between administrators and teachers for the statements of the survey raised the concern that misconceptions exist. The findings suggest that school administrators may not be as attuned to the teachers' perceptions of their support for the practice of differentiated instruction. The study has implications for instructional leadership in that a misalignment of beliefs and attitudes held for innovations by school administrators and teachers can contribute to unintentionally creating barriers for implementation. Consequently, planning for differentiated instruction should be purposely informed by the perceptions of all stakeholders.