The idea that emerges from this e-book on "School leadership and its effects on student achievement" is that the future of this field of research is not simply through more complex statistical analyses and large international studies; on the contrary, the way forward for the years to come is to advance the field through a greater number of studies of the unique characteristics of the context of each educational system, its history, culture and local needs.

The quest for leadership effectiveness can be better conducted at the local level. In short, the future of school leadership and its effects on student achievement rests on the premise that even though we are dealing with global concerns and issues, the solutions must be local. School leaders need to be able to understand the complexity of the system and the complexity of the self. They need to be familiar with the potential 'stumbling blocks' that may exist (both within the self and within the context) and how these obstacles can become challenges that they will need to overcome. School leadership must shape the school and its context in a way that the teachers who work there can then ideally be more effective in supporting their pupils to achieve better learning outcomes.