A study of the challenges faced by African-American urban superintendents addressing NCLB legislation

School district superintendents face a myriad of challenges in the day-today administration of their school systems. The purpose of this research was to identify how the legal mandates of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation has strengthened the efforts of African-American superintendents to move an aggressive agenda for academic achievement in school systems with urban challenges.; Using a multi-site case study approach, 18 African-American school district superintendents across the country were interviewed to identify some of the common challenges they face in school district leadership, how the NCLB legislation has helped and possibly hindered their efforts, the strategies they have successfully implemented to address their challenges, and finally, the preparation that they feel graduate programs could have provided to ensure greater success for them as leaders. Findings indicate that while the NCLB legislation has helped in many respects to improve their efforts for systemic academic achievement, in other areas it has also hampered their progress. Superintendents tend to concur unanimously on critical components that graduate programs could address to better prepare them for their experiences as district leaders in urban settings.; This study established a clear pattern of challenges faced by most urban superintendents, similar strategies utilized to address those challenges and holds strong implications for the postgraduate preparation of urban school district leaders in America.