This project aimed to identify a variety of literacy-teaching approaches that could be used in secondary content-area classrooms to improve the achievement of a wide range of students. Specifically, the project aimed to investigate: (1) literacy and the extent to which a focus on improved teacher knowledge and practice would lead to increases in student achievement; and (2) the extent to which research partnerships constituted effective forms of both professional learning and research. From this two-year research-as-professional-development project between the teachers and the authors as researchers, they make the following concluding comments that highlight their key learning: (1) The project revealed the importance of teachers having the opportunity to interrogate the research on adolescent literacy, literacy pedagogical knowledge, and literacy assessment; (2) The scope and sequence chart (McDonald and Thornley, 2005), developed with reference to a range of research sources, and the New Zealand curriculum and assessment standards (Flockton & Crooks, 2001, 2002; Ministry of Education, 2003), represented a common theoretical position through which curriculum and instruction could be discussed; (3) The collaborative partnerships (Cole & Knowles, 1993), as negotiated and developed between the principal researchers and the teacher-researchers, were reliant on the understanding that all participants brought expertise to the project; (4) The teacher-researcher partnership was predicated on a view of secondary school teachers as individual learners working within diverse school and curriculum contexts; (5) Students across all of the project schools made gains in their learning despite the fact that teachers did not move in their teaching beyond the left-hand column of the scope and sequence chart; (6) The role of leadership in the identification, application and integration of professional learning into a school's psyche is central to its success; and (7) The learning of the teacher-researchers and principal researchers was predicated on, and guided by the experiences, aspirations, and understandings of students as identified through a range of assessment and information-gathering tools. Appendices include: (1) Teacher-researcher interview schedule; and (2) Principal interview schedule. (Contains 8 tables and 2 figures.)