Drawing on findings from a national study of learning-focused leadership in challenging urban settings, this article examines the work of teacher leadership in urban high schools. In this context, a recently emerging cadre of nonsupervisory teacher leaders, working in collaboration with supervisory leaders, exercises a form of “distributed instructional leadership,” creating new channels for instructional renewal. Extensive qualitative data from four high schools in different urban districts across the United States illuminate the nature of these teacher leaders’ work in support of teaching and learning, the ways they and their supervisory counterparts worked as instructional leadership teams, and the role that they played in supporting teachers in classrooms within schools that face significant challenges. Study findings highlight the unique expertise necessary for these teacher leaders—including content expertise, pedagogical coaching skill, ability to build relational trust, and capacity to link the classroom with district- and school-determined learning improvement efforts. In conclusion, the article sketches the implications for reconfiguring supervisory leaders’ work so that the efforts of all remain productively and persistently focused on learning improvement.

While much of prior research has focused on understanding the reasons students leave engineering, and therefore talk to those students who switched out of an engineering major, this study contributes the new perspective of students who seriously considered leaving but ultimately decided to stay in their engineering major. The qualitative analysis suggests that about one-third of students seriously considered leaving engineering but ultimately decided to stay. The reasons students decided to stay in engineering fell into eight main categories, with the most common reasons being the rewards that will come with an engineering degree; enjoyment of engineering; or an aversion to quitting or desire to prove that you can do it. Differences in rationales were discovered between males and females, between different race/ethnicity groups and at the intersection of sex and race/ethnicity.

How can school leaders in low-income urban districts raise expectations and improve student learning despite challenges?