Ethnographic research in 17 low-income schools in the northeast of England is brought to bear on the relationship between the policies of community regeneration and practices of community responsive school leadership. Over 100 interviews and site visits with head teachers, politicians, teachers, community service providers, government officials, minority cultural coordinators, parents, students, and religious leaders reveal the importance of acknowledging and learning from successful primary schools that have served disadvantaged youth for generations. The article highlights the work of two head teachers who, aware of the larger context of their students, have created an environment, shaped a curriculum, and engaged a community to address the special needs of their students. Mixed housing policies, designed to bring middles-class families into urban areas, supposedly to end social isolation and exclusion through the development of integrated schools, might in fact not only disrupt communities and families but also threaten programs that have worked for some of Britain's most disadvantaged youth. (Contains 1 note.)