Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership

Nathaniel Stone, the principal of Lakeshore Community High School, was summoned to a meeting in the city. The gathering included more than a dozen influential leaders. The conversation that unfolded was, literally, unreal. Mr. Smith, a government official of sorts, called for the destruction of a social movement that was having a positive effect on the academic achievement and life chances of Black and Hispanic youth throughout the country. This narrative is constructed in the spirit of Derrick Bell’s chronicles and acknowledges the systemic nature of racism, its presence in the nation’s public schools, and its aim to disenfranchise people of color. Furthermore, it is intended to make this reality palpable to aspiring school leaders and to thwart color-blind school leadership.

In 2015-2016, news stories from Charleston, South Carolina, and the University of Missouri, among others, motivated and inspired many people to organize against assaults on the Black community generally and Black students in particular. Similarly, Black students at Robert E. Lee High School in Virginia have come together around what they perceive as racist symbolism and inequitable educational policies and practices. The Black student leaders at Robert E. Lee High School have presented their school principal with a list of demands. Meanwhile, the school’s football and basketball teams, The Rebels, are threatening to go on strike until students’ demands are addressed. This case study could be used in educational leadership graduate programs as well as curriculum and instruction coursework, especially in courses that emphasize social justice and ethical decision making. Particularly relevant courses might include School-Community Relations, Organizational Culture, Politics of Education, Contemporary Issues in Education, Visionary Planning and Strategies, and Schools as Learning Communities. In addition, this case study aligns with Standards 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards and can be integrated in leadership preparation programs accordingly. This case might also be used in school district–sponsored professional development workshops for current and/or aspiring administrators.

In 2011, an urban school district that had been cited for excessive and disproportionate suspension by race and disability sought to establish guidelines for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) as a remedy. District leaders held a PBIS planning meeting that included a broad collection of stakeholders. As they discussed data-driven protocols, a significant challenge to institutionalized racism embedded in behavioral expectations, analysis, and responses emerged. However, that challenge was met with repeated assertions that the apparently neutral parameters of PBIS would suffice. Thus, PBIS protocols were used to suppress questions of the cultural competence of teachers, administrators, and clinicians.

This case outlines a dilemma encountered by faculty in a K-12 educational administration graduate program on the east coast. The case offers a detailed illustration of tensions arising when faculty discuss their graduate admissions process, their role as gatekeepers, understandings of merit, and the need for student diversity. Disrupting institutional systems of domination and faculty reliance on admissions criteria undermine programmatic diversity goals, including the meanings faculty associate with common admissions criteria. Implications include an authentic, holistic, and intentional examination of graduate admissions criteria.

In 2015, the superintendent of the Jackson County School District revised the existing nepotism policy, and, subsequently, his wife was hired to a newly created position of director of innovation at a salary nearly twice the average paid to teachers in the district. Because of community reaction, the Jackson County School Board met in special session to address the situation. This case, presented in three sequential parts, raises a number of questions: When does nepotism exist? What constitutes unethical behavior on the part of a school district leader? How should a school superintendent react when confronted by alleged misconduct? How should a school board proceed when faced with community outrage? How can a school board regain public trust? This case can be useful in graduate courses to generate discussion of ethical behavior and the consequences of unethical behavior in educational leadership and administration.

After being involuntarily transferred from a suburban middle school near his home to an urban school facing many challenges, this case describes a series of events that led to a veteran teacher’s termination. Upon claiming he was wrongfully terminated, the case narrative ends just prior to the teacher’s hearing before the board of education, where the quality of two principals’ documentation serves as key evidence for both parties.