Over the last 4 decades, the school effectiveness and school improvement research bases have gained prominence and recognition on the international stage. In both atheoretical and empirical sense, they have matured through a wide range of well-documented projects, interventions, and innovations across a range of countries,describing how efforts to help schools become increasingly effective learning environ-ments for the full range of their students have been more or less successful. Thisreview presents evidence of the effects of reform efforts at the school and systemlevels, through articulating 5 phases:

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 Phase 1

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 understanding the organisational culture of the school;

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 Phase 2

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 action research and research initiatives at the school level;

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 Phase 3

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 managing change and comprehensive approaches to school reform;

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 Phase 4

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 building capacity for student learning at the local level and the continuingemphasis on leadership;

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 Phase 5

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 towards systemic improvement.The review concludes by reflecting on how the phases evolve and overlap and offers 3concluding thoughts about how to identify those levers that together provide more powerful ways to enhance the learning and achievement of our students within asystemic context.

Keywords:

 educational effectiveness; school effectiveness; teacher effectiveness; edu-cational ineffectiveness; educational policy