Hearing and Listening: Bridging the Leadership Divide between School Connectedness and Students' Lived Realities.

This article examines the disconnect between urban school expectations and the lived realities of marginalized students through qualitative narrative inquiry with five former high school students from a diverse, low-income urban high school. It highlights how deficit ideologies held by some educators and administrators overlook the complex challenges these students face, including poverty, trauma, and systemic racism, which impact their academic engagement and school connectedness. The study identifies three key themes from student narratives: the need for greater academic rigor, the experience of standing out due to poverty and racial identity, and the necessity for more supportive resources and understanding from school adults. Recommendations emphasize critical social justice leadership practices, including personalized mentorship, flexible student success plans, and strengthened, meaningful college recruitment efforts to disrupt deficit assumptions and foster equitable, asset-based educational environments.