Suburban District Leadership Does Matter

The increased demand for educational reform and accountability has resulted in a renewed focus on the relationship between building leaders and district leaders, particularly on how district leaders can support principals to ensure the academic success of students. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and Race to the Top (RttT) legislations hold both schools and districts accountable for setting high standards and establishing measurable goals that will improve school achievement. However NCLB, as noted by Marsh & Robin (2006), failed to outline the strategies for building and district level leaders, "instead leaving to the discretion of the school and district administrators the responsibility for identifying strategies that best fit their particular local context and address their specific needs" (p.2). Therefore an essential role of district leaders is to make educational reform a reality by translating policies into improved school practices that enhance the leadership of principals (Bottoms & Fry, 2009). While a majority of recent district leadership studies offer insight into practices that have worked toward meeting education reform and accountability expectations in urban school districts, there is limited research focused on district leadership in suburban districts. The question is whether these urban district leadership practices will work in suburban school districts. The purpose of this study is to examine whether successful urban research-based district leadership practices have applicability to suburban district leaders.