The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) passed the Public School Choice Initiative in 2009, with the aim of providing students in the lowest performing schools educational options. LA Pilot Schools represent one alternative students and their families have when choosing a school within LAUSD. The mission of LA Pilot Schools is to provide a unique educational experience for its students by fostering smaller learning communities, increased accountability, collaboration, equity, and autonomy. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of LA Pilot School leadership in utilizing the autonomies they are afforded in a manner that promotes student achievement. More specifically, the study sought to determine the: (1) nature of the autonomies at LA Pilot Schools, (2) leadership strategies employed by LA Pilot School leaders which assist in the implementation of the autonomies, and (3) key factors contributing to successful LA Pilot School administration. This study used a qualitative approach, open-coding 16 semi-structured interviews conducted across nine LA Pilot School sites. The analysis of interview data resulted in concluding the autonomies granted to LA Pilot Schools are bounded by district, state and federal mandates, thus creating what the researchers coined "pseudo-autonomies." Leadership strategies were analyzed through the lens of Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX), resulting in researchers finding decision making by school leaders to be collaborative and distributive in nature. The findings presented in this study further suggest that small school settings, with approximately 400-600 students, constitute an important tool to promote effective teaching and learning. Lastly, the Elect to Work Agreement (EWA) emerged as a leveraging mechanism, which allows LA Pilot Schools to deviate from the UTLA Collective Bargaining Agreement in terms of duties and hours. This study hopes to provide rich and robust data for LAUSD and school districts nationwide considering the Pilot School Model. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]