Principal leadership has the potential to ameliorate the likelihood of inappropriate placement of African American students into special education (Codington & Fairchild, 2012; Harry & Klingner, 2014; Klingner et al., 2003). Research on effective leadership practices and change efforts have been delineated in the literature (Heifetz & Laurie, 2001; Klingner et al., 2005; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Santamaria & Santamaria, 2015; Theoharis, 2007; Thompson, 2010). However, the examination of principals' perspectives related to leadership, change, and disproportionality in special education has not been well documented. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine principals' perceptions of effective practices and barriers in their attempts to reduce the disproportionate placement of African American students into special education programs in their school. Of the eight principals interviewed, four who worked in districts no longer identified as disproportionate shared practices that demonstrated adaptive beliefs with aligned technical change. The common belief systems of these four principals were that of an internal locus of influence, meaning they believed they could impact disproportionality through changes in the educational environment. The four principals who worked in districts that remained disproportionate believed disproportionality was the result of external characteristics outside an educator's ability to influence. These principals shared practices representative of either technical change alone, or technical change that did not align with adaptive beliefs.