Some contemporary urban educational reformers believe that empowering principals with increased school-based autonomy will help them lead educational improvement more effectively. We consider this popular reform idea by examining how principals experienced and exerted autonomy in different forms in two distinct eras in New York City. Our findings suggest that principal autonomy as a centrally planned reform strategy for urban education encounters a Goldilocks dilemma: principal power is almost inevitably too hot or too cold, but never just right. However, principals can and do assert self-sourced autonomy in which they recognize and exercise whatever power they may have within prevailing organizational constraints, conditions, and restrictions. We conclude by examining implications.
AdamowskiS.TherriaultS. B.CavannaA. P. (2007). The autonomy gap: Barriers to effective school leadership. American Institutes for Research/Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
AnyonJ. (1997). Ghetto schooling: A political economy of urban educational reform. Teachers College Press.
4.
AuerbachS. (2009). Walking the walk: Portraits in leadership for family engagement in urban schools. The School Community Journal, 19, 9–31.
5.
BeckL. G.MurphyJ. (1993). Understanding the principalship: Metaphorical themes, 1920s-1990s. Teachers College Press.
6.
BirksM.MillsJ. (2011). Essentials of grounded theory. In Grounded theory: A practical guide (pp. 1–14). Sage.
7.
BrykA. S.SebringP. B.AllensworthE.EastonJ. Q.LuppescuS. (2010). Organizing schools for improvement: Lessons from Chicago. The University of Chicago Press.
8.
BuderL. (1972, March19). Crime and violence rise in city schools. The New York Times, 1, 52.
9.
Bush-MecenasS.de OcaD. M.MarshJ.HoughH. (2018). “Seeing the whole elephant”: Changing mindsets and empowering stakeholders to meaningfully manage accountability and improvement. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 26, 10.
10.
CollinsC. (2011). “Ethnically qualified”: Race, merit, and the selection of urban teachers, 1920-1980. Teachers College Press.
11.
CoplandM. A. (2001). The myth of the superprincipal. Phi Delta Kappan, 82(7), 528–533.
12.
CosnerS.JonesM. F. (2016). Leading school-wide improvement in low-performing schools facing conditions of accountability: Key actions and considerations. Journal of Educational Administration, 54(1), 41–57.
13.
Council of Supervisors and Administrators. (1975, January28). For immediate release: Chancellor’s surrender to New York Civil Liberties Union undermines school discipline. Folder 311, box 27, series 312, Amelia H. Ashe Files. Records of the New York City Board of Education, NYC Department of Records/Municipal Archives.
14.
CubanL. (1976). School chiefs under fire. University of Chicago Press.
15.
CubanL. (1988). The managerial imperative and the practice of leadership in schools. SUNY Press.
CubanL. (2010). As good as it gets: What school reform brought to Austin. Harvard University Press.
18.
DayC.GuQ.SammonsP. (2016). The impact of leadership on student outcomes: How successful school leaders use transformational and instructional strategies to make a difference. Educational Administration Quarterly, 52(2), 221–258.
DukeD. L. (2015). Leadership for low-performing schools: A step-by-step guide to the school turnaround process. Rowman & Littlefield.
21.
DukeD. L.Van GronigenB. A. (2018). Small city school districts’ capacity for improvement and the struggle for educational equity. Urban Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085918772625
22.
EacottS. (2015). The principalship, autonomy, and after. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 47(4), 414–431.
23.
Education Action Program. (1976, March24). For immediate release; contact Elaine Keith or Jane Stern for further information. Summary of facts involved in the suspension of the principal of Long Island City High School by the Chancellor. Education Action Program. Folder 161, box 77, series 312, Amelia H. Ashe Files, Records of the New York City Board of Education, NYC Department of Records/Municipal Archives.
24.
EdwardsD. B.Jr.DeMatthewsD. (2014). Historical trends in educational decentralization in the United States and developing countries: A periodization and comparison in the post-WWII context. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 22, 40.
25.
EvansS. (1970). The urban principal: Man in transition. In LutzF. W. (Ed.), Toward improved urban education. Charles A. Jones Publishing Company.
26.
GreenT. L. (2018). School as community, community as school: Examining principal leadership for urban school reform and community development. Education and Urban Society, 50(2), 111–135.
HeffernanA. (2018). Power and the ‘autonomous’ principal: Autonomy, teacher development, and school leaders’ work. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 50(4), 379–396.
29.
HonigM. I.RaineyL. R. (2012). Autonomy and school improvement: What do we know and where do we go from here?Educational Policy, 26(3), 465–495.
30.
HurwitzH. L. (1977, June1). Dr. Hurwitz says goodbye after 40 years. L.I.C. Newsletter. Folder 163, box 77, series 312, Amelia H. Ashe Files, Records of the New York City Board of Education, NYC Department of Records/Municipal Archives.
31.
JohnsonT. A. (1970, February16). Heroin ‘epidemic’ hits schools. The New York Times, 1, 32.
32.
KafkaJ. (2008). “Sitting on a tinderbox”: Racial conflict, teacher discretion, and the centralization of disciplinary authority. American Journal of Education, 144(3), 247–270.
33.
KhalifaM. (2012). A re-new-ed paradigm in successful urban school leadership: Principal as community leader. Educational Administration Quarterly, 48(3), 424–467.
34.
KingS. S. (1966, October13). Principal backed in long-hair case. The New York Times, 48.
35.
LeithwoodK.LouisK. S.AndersonS.WahlstromK. (2004). How leadership influences student learning. The Wallace Foundation.
36.
LewisH. (2015). New York City public schools from Brownsville to Bloomberg: Community control and its legacy. Teachers College Press.
37.
MaeroffG. I. (1976, March27). Turmoil in the schools: Educators’ problem is keeping order without themselves violating rights. The New York Times, 16.
38.
MeierD. (1995). The power of their ideas: Lessons for America from a small school in Harlem. Beacon Press.
39.
MontgomeryP. L. (1971, February27). School disorders worry aides. The New York Times, 1, 13.
40.
MulcahyD. E. (2019). The role of the school principal in educational reform. International Journal of Educational Reform, 28(2), 151–161.
41.
NadelsternE. (2013). 10 lessons from New York City schools: What really works to improve education. Teachers College Press.
42.
New York Times. (1971, June27). Controversial principal at Jamaica high school rings bell for the last time. The New York Times, BQ63.
43.
New York Times. (1970, December16). Principal accused of Pledge coercion. The New York Times, 32.
44.
New York Times. (1976, March26). Accord reported on Queens school. The New York Times, 50.
45.
OrleckA.HazirjianL. G. (2011). The war on poverty: A new grassroots history. The University of Georgia Press.
OuchiW. G. (2008). Making schools work: A revolutionary plan to get your children the educ. Simon and Schuster.
48.
OuchiW. G. (2009). The secret of TSL: The revolutionary discovery that raises student achievement. Simon & Schuster.
49.
PayneC. M. (2008). So much reform, so little change: The persistence of failure in urban schools. Harvard Education Press.
50.
PeckC. (2014). Paradigms, power, and PR in New York City: Assessing two school accountability implementation efforts. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 22, 1–28.
PeckC.DouglasT. R. M.Rios VegaJ. A. (2016). Urban school leaders as symbolic icons: Race, identity, and power, 1965–2010. The Journal of Educational Foundations, 29(1–4), 73–90.
53.
PembertonK. D.MillerS. (2015). Building home–school relationships to enhance reading achievement for students from families with limited financial resources. Education and Urban Society, 47, 743–765.
54.
PerlsteinD. H. (2004). Justice, justice: School politics and the eclipse of liberalism. Peter Lang.
55.
PodairJ. E. (2002). The strike that changed New York: Blacks, whites, and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville crisis. Yale University.
56.
RavitchD. (2000). The great school wars: A history of the New York City Public Schools. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
57.
RavitchD. (2010). The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education. Basic Books.
58.
RavitchD. (2013). Reign of error: The hoax of the privatization movement and the danger to America’s public schools. Vintage.
59.
RobinsonV. M.LloydC. A.RoweK. J. (2008). The impact of leadership on student outcomes: an analysis of the differential effects of leadership types. Educational Administration Quarterly, 44(5), 635–674.
60.
RogersD. (1968). 110 Livingston street: Politics and bureaucracy in the New York city schools. Random House.
61.
RousmaniereK. (2013). The principal’s office: A social history of the American school principal. SUNY Press.
62.
SchellhardtT. D. (1970, February25). Losing the reins. The Wall Street Journal, 1, 22.
63.
SchukerL. A. (1968, August21). Dangers in school decentralization [letters to the editor of the Times]. The New York Times, 44.
64.
SheldonS. B.EpsteinJ. L. (2002). Improving student behavior and school discipline with family and community involvement. Education and Urban Society, 35, 4–26.
65.
ShippsD. (2006). School reform, corporate style: Chicago, 1880-2000. University Press of Kansas.
66.
ShippsD. (2012). Empowered or beleaguered? Principals’ accountability under New York City’s diverse provider regime. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 20(1), 892.
67.
SpencerJ. (2009). A “new breed” of principal: Marcus Foster and urban school reform in the United States, 1966-1969. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 41(3), 285–300.
68.
SpencerJ. P. (2012). In the crossfire: Marcus Foster and the troubled history of American school reform. University of Pennsylvania Press.
69.
SteinbergM. P.CoxA. B. (2017). School autonomy and district support: How principals respond to a tiered autonomy initiative in Philadelphia public schools. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 16(1), 130–165.
70.
SternM. (1970, February2). Truancy overwhelms the truant officers here. The New York Times, 1, 38.
71.
SugrueT. J. (2008). Sweet land of liberty: The forgotten struggle for civil rights in the north. Random House.
72.
TyackD. B.CubanL. (1995). Tinkering toward utopia. Harvard University Press.
73.
TyackD. B.HansotE. (1982). Managers of virtue: Public school leadership in America, 1820-1980. Basic Books.
74.
TyackD.TobinW. (1994). The “grammar” of schooling: Why has it been so hard to change?American Educational Research Journal, 31(3), 453–479.
75.
Wallace Foundation. (2013). Balancing autonomy and accountability in school leadership: An interview with Shael Polakow-Suransky. In Districts matter: Cultivating the principals urban schools need. Wallace Foundation.
76.
WassermanM. (1970). The school fix, NYC, USA. Simon and Schuster.
77.
WatsonB. C. (1978). The principal in the system. In EricksonD. A.RellerT. L. (Eds.), The principal in metropolitan schools (pp. 40–54). McCutchan Publishing Corporation.
78.
WeinerJ. M.WoulfinS. L. (2017). Controlled autonomy: Novice principals’ schema for district control and school autonomy. Journal of Educational Administration, 55(3), 334–350.
79.
WyattE. (1999, December16). Principals give up tenure for a raise. The New York Times, 1–3.
80.
YinR. K. (2011). Applications of case study research. Sage.
