The task of principals to improve teaching and learning by establishing and sustaining a cohesive school culture is very challenging. In an urban setting, the task is more challenging due to so many deficits that students, staff, and leaders are faced with that their counterparts do not encounter. The researcher's review of the literature yielded considerable research pertaining to distributed leadership that indicated the importance of studying how distributed leadership is structured, distributed leadership practices, and the impact of distributed leadership in terms of whole school improvement as well as understanding the relationships between leaders and followers. With that in mind, it is imperative to have strong leadership in such schools -- but equally important is having a team that will champion the school's vision and ensure that the environment is conducive for teaching and learning. The purpose of this study is to examine the implementation of distributed leadership of principals in two urban charter school settings. Presented herein is a mixed-methods case study on distributed leadership at two urban charter schools located in southern Louisiana. The mixed-methods research framework was selected to ascertain interpretive scripts from each principal about their leadership practices and to examine how they have implemented distributed leadership on their respective campuses. The researcher interviewed principals of the selected schools, conducted focus groups with informal leaders and teacher leaders in the building for qualitative purposes, and distributed a survey to all participants electronically via email for quantitative purposes. The guiding questions were: 1) How is distributed leadership structured at the school? 2) How do principals distribute leadership with formal, informal, and teacher leaders? 3) What is the impact of distributed leadership at the school? The researcher's focus is centered on the implementation of distributed leadership of the selected principals and on the impact distributed leadership has on school improvement in two urban charter schools. The results of this mixed-methods case study suggest that distributed leadership is an efficient and effective form of leadership to utilize as a building leader in today's schools. Additionally, findings indicated that leaders must understand the significance of professional learning communities and ensure there is prescribed times for their teachers to meet collaboratively to discuss best instructional practices and conduct analysis of students' work and that leaders need to build relationships with individuals which in turn will establish trust and comfort amongst all in order for formulate a healthy organization working collaboratively towards the mission of the school as a whole. [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.]