Educational leadership for social justice is founded on the belief that schooling must be democratic and an understanding that schooling is not democratic unless its practices are excellent and equitable. Moreover, educational equity is a precondition for excellence. The failure to achieve universally effective education in U.S. society is known to be a correlate of failure to achieve social justice. By almost any measure, there continues to be serious differences between the level and quality of educational achievement for children coming from rich or poor families and from ethnic majority or some ethnic minority group families. It is important to achieve equal educational results for all children. Failure to do so will hamper specific groups from obtaining the fundamental, primary goods and services distributed by society--rights, liberties, self-respect, power, opportunities, income, and wealth. Education is a social institution, controlling access to important opportunities and resources. State and national accountability policy can leverage social justice. (Contains 32 references.) (Author/SM)