The core of this book consists of six case study evaluations of school-and district-wide school improvement projects (SIPs) supported by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda between 1985 and 2000. The case studies present an evolving body of knowledge about the successes and challenges of a comprehensive approach to school improvement grounded in a common set of strategic principles. The strategic principles reflect the belief that the chances for quality improvement in teaching and learning are greater when change efforts are school-based, involve whole
schools as a unit of change, emphasize the ongoing professional development of teachers, attend to school management and organizational conditions affecting the capacity of teachers to implement change, prepare for the institutionalization of organizational structures and processes that enable continuous school development, and evolve through partnerships among relevant education stakeholders. The SIP case studies are introduced with a comparative review of the structure and evolution of
AKF’s school improvement projects in Africa, and with an account of AKF’s school improvement experiences in Central and South Asia, as well as in Africa. This is followed by the six SIP case study evaluations.

The book concludes with commentaries by international experts in school improvement
and teacher development on the SIP project designs, implementation, and outcomes, and on lessons that can be drawn from the projects and their evaluations for school improvement policy, practice, and theory in developing and developed countries around the world.