Building capacity for school improvement in Multi-Academy Trusts - from the inside out

This paper describes, illustrates and critiques the growth of the academy movement in England as a strategy for school and system transformation. It argues that if the move to academisation in England is to have a transformational effect in terms of student performance, the opportunities provided by structural autonomy need to be strategically developed and reliably implemented from the ‘inside – out’ – ie, by the academies and academy chains themselves.