Using Transformational Leadership in the Era of No Child Left Behind:
             Creating Teacher Leaders to Increase Reading Achievement
             There is a dearth of information to be found on the subject of how to raise achievement scores in low performing schools. Millions of dollars have been spent on various programs to address the needs of large at-risk populations: Reading First, America's Choice, Success for All are just a few. Schools at the other end of the spectrum - those who are "top performers" – receive recognition at the state as well as national levels. Those schools are the model schools that seem to have figured out the formula that no one wants to tinker with. But what about those schools in middle? Those schools who are neither "low performing", nor in the top strata of the educational pile. They are good, but not quite good enough. They have come a long way, but still have lots of room for improvement. How does one keep that upward spiral going? What type of leadership does it take to maintain that forward momentum? And of course, the bigger question, in today's milieu of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and accountability, is how to keep those student scores going up so that we eventually meet that goal of 100% proficiency on high-stakes testing? This paper will attempt to answer these questions: what type of leadership is needed at the school level to continue raising achievement scores, specifically in the area of reading on the Criterion Referenced Test in the state of Georgia for the subgroup of Economically Disadvantaged students?
             My elementary school met the standards for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in each of the two previous year's testing cycles: 2003 and 2004. We are not a "Needs Improvement" school based on NCLB guidelines. We do, however, have room for improvement. We still have about 20 students at each grade level who scored in Level 1 in Readin...