ABSTRACT
To help disadvantaged children fulfill their potential, whole systems of education need to be re-designed. In this chapter, the author emphasizes that educational policies and practices should draw upon abundant research-based evidence and international best practice. The challenge is to bring well-founded strategies to scale and put aside strategies that have self-evidently failed. The author focuses on two high-priority, over-arching strategies along with their rationale. The over-arching strategies include: recruit, train and retain high quality teachers and provide innovative and effective leadership at all levels. The author discusses some of the important leadership roles that need to be exercised throughout an education system in order to bring about change. Leadership should be exercised by researchers and professional bodies with an interest in education. This can best be provided by the generation and dissemination of research findings, the critical analyses of policies and advocacy of social justice and equity.
