Democratic leadership for community schools

Because educators continue to face challenges when seeking to educate all children, there is a growing recognition that schools must work with communities to maximize their collective educational potential (Murphy, Beck, Crawford, Hodges, McGauphy, 2001). Although community schools are still in the emergent stages of development, their emphasis on school-community relations holds great promise. However, one component conspicuously absent from the community schools model is leadership. Research suggests that school leadership has a positive influence on successful school reform because it affects student success and learning (Goertz, Floden, O Day, 1995; Pechman Fiester, 1994). This article seeks to inform the work of school leaders in community schools by considering the principles of democratic leadership in the development of effective community schools leadership.