What's wrong with school improvement?

School improvement has been the dominant paradigm informing educational policy and practice for a generation. There is no doubt that it has had a significant impact on almost every aspect of educational life. School improvement represents a powerful hegemony that informs the development of policy at the national, local, and institutional level in many education systems. Much of the prevailing academic orthodoxy informing teaching and research is centred on school improvement. This is reflected in the emphasis placed on school leadership, the significance attached to organisational effectiveness, and the status accorded school improvement strategies and the use of models of accountability that reflect the performance of individual institutions.