"Great teachers and school leaders hold the key to America's children getting a first-rate education, but we do a spotty job of preparing them." Citing these words of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Vivien Stewart plunges into a fascinating account of how top-performing countries are developing strong school leaders. While countries are setting complex goals for education in the 21st century at the national or state level, they're simultaneously devolving more authority to schools for deciding how to meet these goals and holding schools more accountable for results. England deploys its best principals to help schools in need of support. Singapore has a proactive approach to identifying and developing educator talent, recruiting teachers from the top one-third of their cohort and assessing them early on for leadership potential. In Shanghai, the principal's role focuses on the overall performance of the school, but much of the instructional leadership of the school is carried out by teaching and research groups. In Ontario, Canada, the defining feature of its education initiative is its focus on building capacity in schools to raise achievement. In the United States, the author notes, districts and states often tackle the leadership problem piecemeal. Needed improvements must go beyond pockets of excellence or a couple of quick fixes. We need to adopt a more systemic approach to ensure that all our schools have an effective school leader.