This descriptive single-case study of an exemplar, middle school in a large, urban district with the highest Black student achievement in the district was designed to explore how schools can intentionally support the academic growth of Black students. Through interviews with teachers, teacher leaders, building leaders, and district leaders, we explored how existing structures and routines can create equitable opportunities for academic success. Utilizing Khalifa’s (2016, 2018) culturally responsive school leadership framework, this study explores how school-wide responses to bias and race-evasiveness, and school-wide caring and belonging influence student achievement. Four key practices were identified to promote Black student success which are: (a) cultivating a collectivist culture based on a genuine belief in and commitment to students, (b) messaging and training for high expectations school-wide as an anti-racist practice, (c) ensuring explicit attention to the construct of race and racial identity, including purposeful attention to honoring the identity of a diverse student body, and (d) developing structures of co-planning and co-learning to support professional learning by facilitating an honest, transparent data culture informed by multiple types of data. These practices must be implemented in tandem to purposefully promote academic success for students furthest from justice.
AllenK.KernM. L.Vella-BrodrickD.HattieJ.WatersL. (2018). What schools need to know about fostering school belonging: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 30(1), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-016-9389-8
2.
AndersonE.LemmonD.RobertsA. B. (2026). Equitable, race-conscious instruction and learning for sustained academic and cultural identity. Under review.
3.
Antrop-GonzálezR. (2011). Schools as radical sanctuaries: Decolonizing urban education through the eyes of youth of color. Information Age Publishing.
BassL. (2018). Caring for high school students in transcultural spaces: Accessing student voice. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 22(4), 421–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2018.1481530
6.
BottaniJ. H.BradsawC. P.MendelsonT. (2016). Inequality in black and white school students’ perceptions of school support: An examination of race in context. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 45(6), 1176–1191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0411-0
7.
BoykinA. W.NogueraP. (2011). Creating the opportunity to learn: Moving from research to practice to close the achievement gap. ASCD.
8.
BranchG. F.HanushekE. A.RivkinS. G. (2012). Estimating the effect of leaders on public sector productivity: The case of school principals (Working Paper No. 17803). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w17803
9.
BristolT. J.GoingsR. B. (2019). Exploring the boundary-heightening experiences of black male teachers: Lessons for teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 70(1), 51–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487118789367
10.
CobbF.KrownappleJ. (2019). Belonging through a culture of dignity: The keys to successful equity implementation. Mimi and Todd Press.
11.
CollinsJ. (2018). Urban representation through deliberation: A theory and test of deliberative democracy at the local level. Journal of Urban Affairs, 40(7), 952–973. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2018.1427507
12.
CreswellJ. W.PothC. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). Sage Publications.
13.
DavisL. P.MuseusS. D. (2019). What is deficit thinking? An analysis of conceptualizations of deficit thinking and implications for scholarly research. NCID Currents, 1(1), 117–130. https://doi.org/10.3998/currents.17387731.0001.110
14.
DesimoneL. M.LongD. (2010). Teacher effects and the achievement gap: Do teacher and teaching quality influence the achievement gap between black and white and high-and low-SES students in the early grades?Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 112(12), 3024–3073. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811011201206
15.
DiamondJ. B.GomezL. M. (2023). Disrupting white supremacy and anti-black racism in educational organizations. Educational Researcher, 52(1), 3–12. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X231161054
16.
DriessenG. (2015). Teacher ethnicity, student ethnicity, and student outcomes: A review of the empirical literature. Intercultural Education, 26(3), 179–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2015.1048049
17.
GallowayM. K.CallinP.JamesS.VimegnonH.McCallL. (2019). Culturally responsive, antiracist, or anti-oppressive? How language matters for school change efforts. Equity & Excellence in Education, 52(4), 485–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2019.1691959
18.
GardinerM. E.EnomotoE. K. (2006). Urban school principals and their role as multicultural leaders. Urban Education, 41(6), 560–584. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085906294504
GinsbergM. B.WlodkowskiR. J. (2000). Creating highly motivating classrooms for all students: A schoolwide approach to powerful teaching with diverse learners. Jossey-Bass.
21.
GirvanE. J.GionC.McIntoshK.SmolkowskiK. (2017). The relative contribution of subjective office referrals to racial disproportionality in school discipline. School Psychology Quarterly: The Official Journal of the Division of School Psychology, American Psychological Association, 32(3), 392–404. https://doi.org/10.1037/spq0000178
22.
GoodenM. A.DantleyM. E. (2012). Centering race in a framework for leadership preparation. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 7(2), 237–253. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942775112455266
23.
GorskiP. C. (2011). Unlearning deficit ideology and the scornful gaze: Thoughts on authenticating the class discourse in education. Counterpoint, 402, 152–173. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42981081
24.
GrayD. L.HopeE. C.ByrdC. M. (2020). Why black adolescents are vulnerable at school and how schools can provide opportunities to belong to fix it. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7(1), 3–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732219868744
25.
GrayD. L.HopeE. C.MatthewsJ. S. (2018). Black and belonging at school: A case for interpersonal, instructional, and institutional opportunity structures. Educational Psychologist, 53(2), 97–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2017.1421466
26.
GrissomJ. A.EgaliteA. J.LindsayC. A. (2021). How principals affect students and schools: A systematic synthesis of two decades of research. The Wallace Foundation.
27.
HammondZ. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Corwin Press.
28.
Hinnant-CrawfordB.LettE. L.CormartieS. (2023). Improvement: Critical dispositions for equitable improvement. In AndersonE.HayesS. (Eds.), Continuous improvement: A leadership process for school improvement (p. 487). Information Age Publishing.
29.
HowardT. C. (2003). Culturally relevant pedagogy: Ingredients for critical teacher reflection. Theory Into Practice, 42(3), 195–202. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4203_5
30.
IrbyD. J. (2018). Mo’ data, mo’ problems: Making sense of racial discipline disparities in a large diversifying suburban high school. Educational Administration Quarterly, 54(5), 693–722. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161x18769051
31.
IshimaruA. (2013). From heroes to organizers: Principals and education organizing in urban school reform. Educational Administration Quarterly, 49(1), 3–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X12448250
32.
JohnsonE. C. (2007). Seeking Freire’s Theory on Critical Consciousness: A Look at One Preservice Teacher’s Field Experience. Curriculum and Teaching, 2222(22), 8989-9797. ():-. https://doi.org/10.7459/ct/22.2.07
33.
KhalifaM. (2018). Culturally responsive school leadership. Harvard Education Press.
34.
KhalifaM. A.GoodenM. A.DavisJ. E. (2016). Culturally responsive school leadership: A synthesis of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 1272–1311. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654316630383
35.
KumarR.GrayD. L. L.Kaplan TorenN. (2022). Pre-service teachers’ desire to control bias: Implications for the endorsement of culturally affirming classroom practices. Learning and Instruction, 78, 101512. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2021.101512
36.
Ladson-BillingsG. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465–491. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312032003465
37.
Ladson-BillingsG. (2006). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in U.S. schools. Educational Researcher, 35(7), 3–12. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x035007003
38.
Ladson-BillingsG. (2021). Three decades of culturally relevant, responsive, & sustaining pedagogy: What lies ahead?The Educational Forum, 85(4), 351–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131725.2021.1957632
39.
Ladson-BillingsG. (2022). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children (3rd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
LoveB. (2019). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Beacon.
43.
LoveB. L. (2023). Punished for dreaming: How school reform harms black children and how we heal. Unabridged. Macmillan Publishers.
44.
LyiscottJ. (2019). Black appetite. White food.: Issues of race, voice, and justice within and beyond the classroom. Routledge.
45.
MadhlangobeL.GordonS. P. (2012). Culturally responsive leadership in a diverse school: A case study of a high school leader. NASSP Bulletin, 96(3), 177–202. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192636512450909
46.
MartínezD. G.SpikesD. D. (2020). Se acabaron las palabras: A post-mortem Flores v. Arizona disproportional funding analysis of targeted English Learner (EL) expenditures. Educational Policy. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904820917370
47.
MatthewsL. E.JonesS. R.ParkerC.LozadaP. (2022). Exploring racialized factors to understand why black mathematics teachers consider leaving the profession. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 25(5), 551–577. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-021-09497-5
MilnerH. R. (2010). Start where you are, but don’t stay there: Understanding diversity, opportunity gaps, and teaching in today’s classrooms. Harvard Education Press.
50.
MilnerH. R.LaughterJ. C. (2014). But good intentions are not enough: Preparing teachers to center race and poverty. The Urban Review, 47(2), 341–363. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-014-0295-4
O’ConnorC.MuellerJ.LewisR. L.Rivas-DrakeD.RosenbergS. (2011). Being” Black and strategizing for excellence in a racially stratified academic hierarchy. American Educational Research Journal, 48(6), 1232–1257. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831211410303
53.
Rivera-McCutchenR. L. (2021). Radical care: Leading for justice in urban schools. Teachers College Press.
54.
RochC. H.ElsayedM. A. (2020). Race, school discipline, and administrative representation. International Public Management Journal, 23(2), 161–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2019.1659196
55.
SalazarM. D. C.LernerJ. (2019). Teacher evaluation as cultural practice: A framework for equity and excellence. Routledge.
56.
SaldañaJ. (2021). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Sage.
57.
SkibaR. J.MichaelR. S.NardoA. C.PetersonR. L. (2002). The color of discipline: Sources of racial and gender disproportionality in school punishment. The Urban Review, 34(4), 317–342. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1021320817372
58.
SkrlaL. E.ScheurichJ. J.GarciaJ.NollyG. (2004). Equity audits: A practical leadership tool for developing equitable and excellent schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 40(1), 133–161. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X03259148
59.
SmythJ. (2006). Educational leadership that fosters ‘student voice’. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 9(4), 279–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603120600894216
60.
StakeR. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Sage Publications.
61.
StembridgeA. (2020). Culturally responsive education in the classroom: An equity framework for pedagogy. Routledge.
62.
St MaryJ.CalhounM.TejadaJ.JensonJ. M. (2018). Perceptions of academic achievement and educational opportunities among black and African American youth. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 35(5), 499–509. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-018-0538-4
63.
StovallJ. L.MoselyM. (2023). “We just do us”: How black teachers co-construct black teacher fugitive space in the face of antiblackness. Race Ethnicity and Education, 26(3), 298–317. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2022.2122424
64.
TheoharisG. (2007). Social justice educational leaders and resistance: Toward a theory of social justice leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 43(2), 221–258. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X06293717
65.
TheoharisG.HaddixM. (2011). Undermining racism and a whiteness ideology: White principals living a commitment to equitable and excellent schools. Urban Education, 46(6), 1332–1351. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085911416012
66.
TillmanL. C. (2004). (Un)Intended consequences? The impact of the Brown v. Board of education decision on the employment status of black educators. Education and Urban Society, 36(3), 280–303. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124504264360
67.
WalterM.SuinaM. (2019). Indigenous data, indigenous methodologies and indigenous data sovereignty. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 22(3), 233–243. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2018.1531228
68.
YarnellL. M.BohrnstedtG. W. (2017). Student-teacher racial match and its association with black student achievement: An exploration using multilevel structural equation modeling. American Educational Research Journal, 55(2), 287–324. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831217734804
YossoT. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Critical Race Theory in Education, 8(1), 69–91. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003005995-8
