Teaching Australia was established by the Australian government in 2005 to be a national body for the teaching profession. Teaching Australia believes that one of the key defining features of a profession is that the profession itself defines the standards of professional practice that it expects of its members. This standards development cannot be simply anecdotal: it must have as its basis rigorous, disciplined research about accomplished and effective practice, and in the case of teaching and school leadership the impact of these on the learning of school students. This paper relates how Teaching Australia grounds its work in the development of professional standards for advanced teaching in its various specialised areas and for principals in rigorous, reliable research. Some of this is original research commissioned by Teaching Australia, while some is national and international research findings analysed and synthesised to inform the standards development work.