A model of school change has been designed and implemented in a systematic replication series. Key principles are: that teachers need to be able to act as adaptive experts; that local evidence about teaching and learning is necessary to inform instructional design; that school professional learning communities are vehicles for changing teaching practice; that educative research-practice-policy partnerships are needed to solve problems; that instructional leadership in schools is necessary for community functioning and for coherence; and that effective programmes in schools are built by fine tuning existing practices. A three-stage model has been tested across three clusters of schools: two groups of urban schools serving Maori and Pasifika children from low socio-economic status communities and a third group comprising all the primary schools in a rural and remote region of New Zealand. The model has been extended to different academic areas (writing as well as reading) and to secondary schools since its initial testing. Evidence is provided for effectiveness for Maori and Pasifika children in urban schools and Maori students in rural and remote schools. (Contains 2 figures and 1 note.)