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Partnering with purpose to tackle the biggest challenges in:
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School reform succeeds when leaders translate policy into classroom practice, yet too often lack the support to do so. Impact improves when leadership development focuses on teaching, aligns with system change, and equips leaders to sustain improvement in learning across schools.
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Challenge #1
What role should school leaders play in education reform – and how do we ensure it actually improves learning outcomes?
School leaders are central to whether reform translates into better learning, because they sit at the point where policy meets classroom practice. Too often, reforms assume that introducing new curricula, standards, or training will be enough – but without strong leadership, these changes rarely take root. Based on our many years of experience working with school leaders, middle-tier officials, and senior policymakers, we believe school leaders are a driving force for reform, responsible for creating the culture, expectations, and systems that enable teaching to improve consistently across their schools.
The most effective leaders focus relentlessly on teaching and learning, not just compliance or administration. From the best research evidence, we know the power of instructional leadership, where leaders are supported to embed evidence-informed practice across classrooms, departments, and whole schools. This approach is at the heart of the National Professional Qualifications that we have delivered in England, as well as in our work on other programmes around the world, such as the TEACH programme in Zimbabwe. In the latter, school heads were equipped with the competencies to lead professional development, use data, and drive continuous improvement in teaching quality. By strengthening leaders’ ability to support teachers day to day, the programme moved reform from policy into practice at scale, with improvements in teaching and learning embedded through national systems.
However, ensuring that leadership actually improves learning outcomes – for all learners – also depends on aligning leadership development with wider system reform. Our school improvement approach emphasises that leadership, teacher development, curriculum, and accountability must work together, with leaders supported to use data, guide practice, and sustain change over time. Where this alignment is in place – as seen in Zimbabwe, where leadership training is integrated with teacher development and inspection reform – systems not only benefit from better leadership, but also from stronger teaching and improved outcomes for learners.
Across contexts, the message is clear: reform only improves learning when school leaders are empowered to lead it, equipped to focus on teaching, and supported by a system that enables them to succeed.
Challenge #2
Which professional development approaches for local leaders actually transform practice in the classroom?
Professional development for school leaders truly transforms practice when it is focused on improving teaching, not just building generic leadership skills. Too often, programmes develop leaders in isolation from classrooms, leaving teaching unchanged. In our experience – supported by research evidence – the most effective approaches equip leaders to understand strong pedagogy, support teachers, and shape decisions about curriculum and practice.
This is evident in edt’s National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) in England – funded by the UK Department for Education – where leadership development is sustained and rooted in evidence-informed teaching, enabling leaders to embed better practice across teams and settings. The same principle underpinned the TEACH programme in Zimbabwe, where leaders were trained to use data, lead professional development, and drive continuous improvement in teaching, linking leadership directly to classroom outcomes.
The strongest impact comes when leadership development is embedded in a wider system. Our school improvement work shows that aligning leadership with teacher development, curriculum, and accountability enables leaders to sustain change at scale. Where this happens, leadership development does not sit alongside reform: it becomes the mechanism through which teaching improves and learning outcomes follow.
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Let's work together
What's the biggest challenge you're facing?
edt works strategically with partners around the world to design and implement solutions to the most pressing education challenges. To find out more about our approach to school leadership and its role in embedding reform, get in touch.
Contact Tony McAleavy, Chief Education & Skills Officer
Having originally joined edt in 2001 as Teaching and Learning Director for our CfBT Education Services team, Tony now has corporate oversight of the educational impact of all edt's activities and our public domain research programme. Across his career, he brings over 45 years of experience in education development, and has worked extensively on school reform in many countries, particularly in the Middle East.