The article is based on a follow-up study of a research and development work project with school leaders and teachers conducted in a Norwegian lower secondary school. The purpose is to present an understanding of "what the practitioners find they have learned" during the project and "how they experience the situation with regard to development about two years after the project" has ended. The study concludes that continuity in both leadership and the teaching staff means that the involved practitioners can develop an identity with a common objective over time, and that development can then be seen as improvement. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)