The core principles: new wine in old bottles?

This article focuses on the U.K. Department for Education & Skills paper, "The Core Principles: Teaching and Learning, School Improvement, System Wide Reform." There are 18 Core Principles, in three six- packs. Those for Teaching and Learning present a digest of current thinking, which could support a range of views. The Core Principles for School Improvement include focusing on evidence based practice, collaboration with other schools and partners, and the building of collective ownership. The new language of reform, welcome though it is, comes nowhere near to describing a workable alternative approach to education leadership. Nor is it clear how the "sense of moral purpose", beliefs and attitudes, which are the real drivers of change, are cultivated.