Qualities of Democracy: Links to Democratic Leadership‪.‬

Introduction For the school principal, recent trends--such as increasing student diversity, achievement disparities, democratic schooling, and accountability testing--have created a perfect storm, one that promotes research, reflection, and dialogue. Evidence, for instance, is beginning to emerge that principals with accomplished careers in the state of Texas are losing their jobs because of low test scores, and those Texas principals who serve as leaders of schools with diverse student populations are especially vulnerable (McGhee & Nelson, 2005). In defining the worth of students, teachers, and principals by test scores, education is turning further away from the very substantive qualities--like responsiveness, equality, and respect for civil and political freedoms--which are necessary for a healthy democracy. Such inattention leaves a democracy vulnerable, for as Dewey reminds us, "What nutrition and reproduction are to physiological life, education is to social life" (1916, 9).