This paper outlines some key findings of this longitudinal professional development focus in secondary schools, including the effects on teachers’ perceptions of the relationship between teaching and learning, as well as conceptions about the role of student achievement data to inform pedagogical practices. The project has been underway since 2003, beginning with a pilot project that has, through the findings emerging from the research evaluation, evolved into the current project. To date, more than 100 secondary schools in New Zealand have been formally involved in this national professional development programme, while a number of other schools have been developing their own literacy development outside the supported national project. The initial pilot project involved 20 schools per annum in clusters of five schools, supported by an external literacy facilitator for a school year. A new set of 20 schools came on board annually, even though schools were at various stages of readiness. At the same time, the facilitators were the only literacy facilitators in their region, which led to some isolation issues for them. In the current project, schools are involved in the external facilitation process for a minimum of two years, while the facilitators are supported by a national co-ordination process within which their own professional development and peer networking is encouraged. This project appears to be unique in its focus on literacy in secondary schools, and the effects it is having on teachers’ knowledge and understanding of learning principles and ways in which teachers can deliberately and positively affect students’ achievement. A key aspect of the project is how complex literacy leadership and professional development actually is. It involves principals, literacy leaders, heads of subject departments, cross-curricular literacy teams, external literacy facilitators, national co-ordination, and reculturing the dynamics of teachers’ professional interactions.

The methodology has been relatively consistent throughout, as a quasi-ethnographic study, using the mixed methods of qualitative case studies (using methods such as interviews and observations) plus the quantitative methods of nationally normed pyschometric tests and ecologically valid teacher-made tests (Whitehead, 2007). The two methodologies complement each other, in that the interview data tends to support the longitudinal tracking of student achievement data. Cohorts are tested at the start of the school year, then at the end, with comparisons showing the extent of the improvements in students' abilities to engage with and comprehend texts. The interview data tracks the development and changes of teachers perceptions about literacy and learning, and seeks to understand something of the school's internally dynamics as they relate to literacy professional development

Key findings from the continuing research evaluation centre on teacher identity and agency (Smyth, 2007, Wright, 2007a), learning leadership (Fitzgerald & Gunter, 2006, Wright, 2007b), reculturing staff dynamics and relationships, and the role of achievement data in supporting teachers’ work in tailoring learning (Whitehead, 2007). A further finding, principally based on the initial pilot project but supported by ongoing data, is the importance of taking a longitudinal view of professional development in literacy for secondary teachers. Three phases of school and teacher readiness for literacy change have been developed as a way of understanding the complexities of focusing more on learning rather than teaching. These findings have important implications for policy directions at the government level.