Volume 28 Number! February 2008 SCHOOL LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT Editor Alma Harris 5 Guest Editors: Kenneth Leithwood and Christopher Day Special Issue: The impact of school leadership on student outcomes : Routledge eg saruer ant} ISSN 1363-2434School Leadership & Management VOLUME 28 NUMBER 1 FEBRUARY 2008 Special Issue: The impact of school leadership on student outcomes Guest Editors: Kenneth Leithwood and Christopher Day CONTENTS Guest editorial The impact of schoo! leadership on pupil outcomes Kenneth Leithwood and Christopher Day 1 Articles Research into the impact of school leadership on pupil outcomes: policy and research contexts Christopher Day, Pam Sammons, David Hopkins, Kenneth Leithivood and Alison Kington 5 Seven strong claims about successful school leadership Kenneth Leithwood, Aima Harris and David Hopkins 27 Leadership characteristics and practices in schools with different effectiveness and improvement profiles Oing Gu, Pam Sammons and Palak Mehta 43 Leadership in improving schools: a qualitative perspective Glare Penlington, Alison Kington and Christopher Day 65 ‘What we have learned, what we need to know more about Christopher Day, Kenneth Leithivood and Pam Sammons 83 Book reviews 97