Accountable Leadership

Leadership demands in American public schools have changed dramatically in the past 20 years. Whether-or how-the practice of leadership will change to meet those demands is an open question. The change in demands is largely a consequence of the introduction of performance-based accountability-policies that evaluate, reward, and sanction schools on the basis of measured student performance. While the merits of these policies are debatable, the fact that they have changed-probably fundamentally-the demands placed on school leaders is not.