This paper provides detailed evidence on the extent to which, and how, teaching schools and their activity have made a difference to the processes of school improvement and supported improved student outcomes. Teaching schools’ impact in improving schools is drawn from two sources of evidence: perceived impact reported by participants of case studies and surveys, and measured association between educational outcomes and participation in the teaching schools initiative as identified in the secondary analysis of the National Pupil Database in England. Evidence suggests that teaching schools and their alliances can make and have made a marked difference to the sharing of good practice among schools and to enhancing the professional practice of many teachers and school leaders within and beyond alliance partnerships. In this sense, the teaching school model clearly has an important role to play in driving forward a school-led ‘self-improving’ system (Hargreaves, 2011). However, as yet, the lack of measured overall effect on pupils’ academic outcomes within TSAs suggests that caution should be exercised in making claims concerning the potential contribution of the teaching school model to raising attainment in schools across the partnership. To date, the evaluation suggests that as a school-level initiative, it is teaching schools (with most exposure to and most experience of activities of a TSA) that show the most positive impact of being involved in an alliance TSA, both in terms of ability to continue to promote improved pupil outcomes (as shown in the analysis of pupil outcome data) and in perceptions of impact on school improvement processes (as shown in case studies and the national survey). Moreover, with so many changes taking place in education policy, and schools generally being involved in many different partnerships, it would be difficult for many alliance schools and evaluations to tease out which change, and which partnership, makes the most difference, and thus be able to consider being part of a teaching school as the only or primary factor that determines impact.
