Whole school improvement Australian-style: What do IDEAS and RAISe offer?

In this paper we examine two school improvement processes developed and currentlyimplemented widely in Australia: IDEAS and RAISe. We were intrigued by their similarities withtheir focus on people, process, and partnerships. Both place teacher development as the key to theimproving student learning; both have their own terminology, which serves to unite those who are'in' and exclude those who are not; and both were conceived as partnerships between school anduniversity. Given these similarities, we wondered whether they might be conceptualised as oneintegrated whole. We critique and analyse the processes and propose a model for integratingthem. We note, too, that the role of the principal, the time taken to sustain change, and themessiness of change are underrated issues in both IDEAS and RAISe as school improvementmodels.