Toward equity and excellence: an Hispanic superintendent's leadership efforts in Texas

Today, school districts in Texas face many challenges. Dwindling state funding, increasing diversity, and increasing accountability for meeting high state standards are but a few. These challenges are being met by some districts that are successful even in light of these daunting circumstances. Although studies have described how some of these districts achieved high performance for all students, few have investigated this phenomenon in a diverse district that is led by a Hispanic superintendent. Thus, the goal of this study was to describe the processes that occurred in a diverse Texas public school district that had achieved success with all student groups. Specifically, the study sought to describe the role the superintendent played in the improvement of the district as well as describing the effect his ethnicity played in the change process.