Leadership magazine Nov/Dec 2014 V 44 No 2 | Page 25

on achievement for all students. This was
eloquently expressed by Louis et al. (2010):
“To date we have not found a single case of
a school improving its student achievement
record in the absence of talented leadership.”
Common sense tells us leaders play an important role in making schools effective by
ensuring that each and every child achieves.
Research has shown the effect of leadership
on student learning as second only to classroom instruction. And, important to our
purpose of educating students from diverse
cultures to achieve high standards, effective
school leaders have considerable influence
on schools with the greatest academic need.
Similarly, district leadership has a positive
influence on turning around low-performing schools (Williams, et al., 2010; Honig,
2010). Conclusion: effective leadership matters, as it always has.

equally important aspects of leadership –
leaders’ values and behaviors made explicit
for all to see, and transparency in their
schools’ policies and practices.
Schools that are becoming culturally proficient recognize that their policies and practices reflect the absence or presence of value
for diversity in ways that inform daily practices in classrooms and across the campus.
Culturally proficient values, beliefs, policies and practices are intended to achieve eq-

The “why” questions for school leaders
In this article we will describe culturally
proficient leadership in California’s schools,
and propose to strengthen the knowledge
and skills of today’s leaders by emphasizing
the need for school and district office leaders
to ask the following “why” questions:

u   Why might equity be a priority for
school and district leaders?

u  Why might achieving equity for all as
a performance leadership skill be possible?
u  Why do leaders need to know if equity and access to education are implied behaviors or embedded leadership behaviors
within the district?
u  Why do leaders in the district do what
they do? What are the underlying values,
beliefs and assumptions that guide their behaviors?

u  Why are the current policies and practices in place that guide the action plans of
school leaders? What are the underlying values, beliefs and assumptions embedded in
those policies and practices?
u  Why might these questions be helpful
in guiding discussions among leaders and
teachers throughout the district?
Intentionally with purpose
Knowing and caring about our students
in all of their diversity is embodied in two

uitable outcomes for all students. Culturally
proficient leaders ask the important “why”
questions and don’t get lost in the “how to”
questions.
Using the questions posed above, culturally proficient leaders drill deeply and pose
questions that might disturb the organization, and at the same time explore curiosity.
Questions such as the following are emerging among educators who are intently addressing the underlying issues to access and
achievement gaps:
• Why are students from this demographic/cultural group lagging in achievement, and have been doing so for years?
• Why are students from this demographic/cultural group over-represented in
special education, and under-represented
in honors and International Baccalaureate
courses?
• Why are students from this demographic/cultural group suspended and expelled at rates that far exceed their proportion of the school population?
Culturally proficient leaders use such
questions to understand school-based fac-

tors that might facilitate or hinder student
access and achievement. Cross (1989), in his
work on cultural competence and cultural
proficiency, referred to this sense of openness to curiosity as an inside-out process of
reflection and dialogue to guide personal
and organizational change.
Leaders who take this approach are not
naïve. Leaders courageous enough to pose
these questions fully recognize the external
realities of community socio-economics,
local and national political climates, and the
assessment trends that impact schools.
Culturally proficient school leaders are
guided by a belief that they, just like their
students, can learn. They believe their students deserve high quality education and
that they and their colleagues have the capacity to learn how to educate their students.
For school districts to effectively educate
students from diverse ethnic, racial and
socio-economic backgrounds, leaders must
use a systemic approach with a clear purpose
in