1 Pedagogic capital: An essential concept (and tool) for effective school leaders

School leaders frequently recognize the need for their schools to improve student outcomes in particular areas. It is often more difficult to describe the teaching practice that they need in place to deliver the improvement. It is more difficult still to change the present teaching practice in the school. This paper examines these issues. Consider this scenario. As an improvement agenda, schools in a region of Department of Education and Training, Victoria decided to target developing literacy. Three secondary schools, X, Y and Z illustrate how schools in the region differed in their response to this challenge. All embraced the agenda. X and Y initially had lower student literacy levels than Z. Over a period X showed an improvement in student literacy outcomes while Y and Z remained largely unchanged. The improvement in X was paralleled by a change in teaching practice across the school. This change was initiated and guided by its school leadership team, led by its principal, Robert. It was planned strategically and implemented in a systematic, structured and organsied way. It was monitored using indicators of student learning and staff teaching behaviours. This scenario is not unusual in educational provision. Whatever the improvement focus, schools differ in how they achieve it. The ease with which they do it is a measure of their effectiveness