Few empirical studies have been undertaken concerning successful leadership practices within challenging urban schools. Given that much of the school leadership literature relies on principals as the source of evidence for school improvement, this article explores, through multiperspective case study methodology, how one failing urban elementary school has become successful, largely as a result of the transformative leadership of the principal. Our findings support more recent school-derived iterations of transformational leadership theory, in which principals stress support, care, trust, participation, facilitation, and the building of consensus. However, our data also draw attention to how this particular successful principal transcends the administrative immediacy of short-term innovation, by paying considerable attention to longer term, socially transformative, and morally grounded principles, rooted in democracy, equity, and social justice. (Contains 8 footnotes.)