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How middle leaders drove a 23-month leap in reading progress

How middle leaders drove a 23-month leap in reading progress

By Ben Laybourn on May 6, 2025 in Leadership

In the blog, Ben discovers how middle leaders used deliberate conversations and evidence-based inquiry to transform student achievement in reading.

What happens when middle leaders sharpen their leadership conversations, focus on student outcomes, and lead with precision and purpose?

In three New Zealand schools, the results were remarkable: students with long-standing reading challenges made an average of nearly 23 months’ progress in just 12 months.

A recent study by Dr Jacqui Patuawa, Claire Sinnema, Distinguished Professor Emeritus Viviane Robinson, and Tong Zhu (2023) —led in part by members of our Evaluation Associates | Te Huinga Kākākura Mātauranga team—shows how deliberate, evidence-informed leadership conversations helped transform outcomes for some of the most stuck learners.

Here’s what we can learn from their success.

Understanding the leadership challenge

Despite years of effort and investment, inequities in student achievement persist. Research led in part by our Evaluation Associates | Te Huinga Kākākura Mātauranga team identified three common pitfalls in professional learning that help explain why:

Leaders aren't always supported to dig deeply into data to understand the real cause of underachievement.
Professional learning often bypasses leaders’ and teachers’ existing behaviours and theories of action.
Too little attention is given to the interpersonal skills required to lead challenging conversations and shift teacher practice.

Sound familiar?

This intervention aimed to flip these patterns—combining a deliberative problem-solving model with the interpersonal effectiveness central to our Leading by Learning approach.

What made the difference?

Eight middle leaders worked with teachers across three schools to target students with long-standing reading challenges. What they learned shifted not only their leadership practice—but also outcomes for learners.

1. More frequent conversations

Before the intervention, most leaders met with their teachers about student learning just twice a year. Afterwards, they were having focused, purposeful conversations an average of 17 times per year.

2. Sharper focus on student learning

Leaders shifted conversations away from day-to-day behaviour management and towards actual progress and achievement in reading. This significantly improved teachers’ ability to plan more targeted, effective instruction.

3. Deliberate problem-solving, not guesswork

Teachers moved away from trial-and-error approaches. With leaders guiding them through causal inquiry, they shifted from assumptions to evidence-based precision—defining problems clearly, identifying root causes, and selecting strategies that directly addressed them.

4. Interpersonal skills mattered

Leaders developed the skills to lead respectful, honest, and productive conversations—even when the issues were uncomfortable. Teachers felt safe being open about their practice, creating space for real learning and meaningful change.

5. Data became a living part of the conversation

Rather than being used only for reporting, data became a dynamic part of everyday discussions—helping teams continually ask: Is what we’re doing working? If not, what do we need to change?

The result? Accelerated student achievement

The 33 students involved made, on average, 22.8 months of reading progress in just 12 months—nearly double the expected gain. Leaders and teachers were unanimous: the shift was real, and it was directly linked to the leadership conversations they had learned to lead.

What does this mean for us?

We often assume that improvement lies in new tools or programmes. But this research is a powerful reminder: real change starts with real conversations.

If we want to reduce disparity and lift student achievement, we need to help leaders:

unlearn ineffective and default behaviours
learn how to lead with curiosity, clarity, and respect
engage deeply with the why behind persistent challenges

Most of all, we need professional learning that meets leaders where they are, challenges their thinking, and builds their confidence to lead the conversations that matter most.

Because through those conversations, leaders don’t just change practice — they change lives.