International evidence suggests that educational reform's progress depends on teachers' individual and collective capacity and its link with schoolwide capacity for promoting pupils' learning. Building capacity is therefore critical. Capacity is a complex blend of motivation, skill, positive learning, organisational conditions and culture, and infrastructure of support. Put together, it gives individuals, groups, whole school communities and school systems the power to get involved in and sustain learning over time. Developing professional learning communities appears to hold considerable promise for capacity building for sustainable improvement. As such, it has become a 'hot topic' in many countries.

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In fewer than 10 years since the year 2000, systems around the world have been affected by global changes and new understandings that challenge what it means to improve schools and build capacity for improvement. This article examines seven issues in the last decade and their implications for 'building capacity for improvement'. It concludes that there may be a need for new language and methodologies to capture the fast changing landscape.

Over the last 4 decades, the school effectiveness and school improvement research bases have gained prominence and recognition on the international stage. In both a theoretical and empirical sense, they have matured through a wide range of welldocumented projects, interventions, and innovations across a range of countries, describing how efforts to help schools become increasingly effective learning environments for the full range of their students have been more or less successful. This review presents evidence of the effects of reform efforts at the school and system levels, through articulating 5 phases: • Phase 1understanding the organisational culture of the school; • Phase 2action research and research initiatives at the school level; • Phase 3managing change and comprehensive approaches to school reform; • Phase 4building capacity for student learning at the local level and the continuing emphasis on leadership; • Phase 5towards systemic improvement. The review concludes by reflecting on how the phases evolve and overlap and offers 3 concluding thoughts about how to identify those levers that together provide more powerful ways to enhance the learning and achievement of our students within a systemic context.

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