Since 2000 the Hong Kong government has mandated policies to restructure secondary through tertiary progression, broaden the curriculum, liberalize student allocation, change instruction and assessment, delineate schools’ instructional language, and implement school based management. By exploring the perceptions of principals, middle leaders and key staff, this study analyzes: 1. How school contexts impact on leaders’ and teachers’ perceptions of mandates; 2. How leaders’ and teachers’ contribute to the enactment of mandates; 3. How school policies impact on the enactment of mandates; and, 4. Similarities and differences across four schools. which varied in location, SES, and autonomy in governance. In-depth, semi-structured, retrospective interviews were conducted with principals, middle leaders and senior teachers to identify policies of perceived impact, solicit interpretations of the policies and steps taken for enactment, and probe emerging themes. Drawing on this data, mandates have been mapped against “lines of success” that show stages of enactment and leaders’ actions that shaped improvement over 12 years (Day et al, 2009). Across schools, leaders used school-based policies to establish connections that shaped enactment. The schools varied in how structural connections mediated policies; at times drawing connections holistically across a school and at other times framing them hierarchically via departments.