Prospective Principals' Openness to Organizational Change and the Education of African American Students

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to report the findings of a research study that sought to examine and describe prospective principals’ attitudes and perceptions regarding current efforts to transform urban education for the betterment of African American Students. Given the current wave of reforms targeted at schools serving large numbers of African American students is driven by policies emanating from President Bush’s No Child Left Behind legislation, this study focuses on prospective principals’ openness to the changes required by this federal legislation. This investigation is an attempt to assess the extent to which a principal preparation program at a large public university in the state of California is meeting its goal of preparing urban school administrators to transform urban education in the state of California. It explores the connection between the beliefs of prospective principals and the support of urban school reform.