Equity-centered school leaders

Abstract

Ohio’s Columbus City Schools developed a new urban grow-your-own principal pipeline. This pipeline emphasizes the cultivation of equity-centered principals who can address educational and social disparities in transformative and sustainable ways. Drawing from research and professional literature and from district and stakeholder engagements, author James C. Eslinger outlines six interrelated critical dispositions that need to be nurtured within school leaders. He demonstrates how these dispositions are integrated in the recruitment, preparation, and induction of aspiring and novice school leaders in the district. These dispositions are key drivers for leaders’ beliefs and practices to advance equity in schools and beyond.