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This article details how a newly arrived Turkish refugee student navigates schooling in the United States. It highlights the trauma purged Turkish families experience in their home country and their challenges as newcomers unfamiliar with their new country's dominant culture, language, and education system. The case narrative provides insight into how children of Turkish political refugees are often overlooked in the context of U.S. schools, where teachers lack adequate training and supports. By illuminating one refugee family's experiences in U.S. schools, the case calls for leaders to develop holistic supports and teacher education focused on the needs of refugee students.

Drawing on ethnographic research from a small urban high school serving predominantly low-income students in a large northeastern city, this case explores how a school leader seeks to improve the school's graduation rates by analyzing student data. It asks readers to consider the overall organization of the meeting, the role of the principal, the positioning of teachers, and the resulting conversations about students that the meeting generates. The case suggests that data analysis is not a silver bullet for improvement and considers that organizational, cultural, and contextual elements need to be in place for teachers to effectively improve their practice and student outcomes.