The focus of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on accountability created a high stakes educational environment. Although accountability is an important goal, guidance on how schools go about building the capacity to effectively accomplish the goals set in NCLB was not part of the legislation. This article supports the premise that a skillful balance of transformational and transactional leadership styles is needed to meet the expectations for accountability. An exhaustive review and analysis of literature on leadership and leadership styles, particularly focusing on transformational and transactional leadership, was conducted and incorporated into this paper. Research supports both leadership styles; however, transformational and transactional leadership focus on different aspects of the school setting. According to Burns (1978), transformational leadership targets change while transactional leadership targets management functions. Both of these are important to establishing and maintaining an environment conducive to learning. With the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act under President Obama's administration, the opportunity is upon us to provide principals with the training needed to move schools forward to meet current expectations. (Contains 1 figure.)