Editorial for Special Issue - Leadership in Multi-School Organisations

This special issue focusses on governance, leadership and improvement in Multi-School Organisations (MSOs). Three types of MSO are examined across the five articles Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) in England, Boards of Multiple Schools (BMSs) in the Netherlands, and Charter Management Organisations (CMOs) in the USA. The emergence and evolution of these new MSO types is worthy of study for a number of reasons. Most significantly, in each of the three countries, these MSOs are now responsible for operating multiple schools which educate thousands of children, often in the most deprived communities. These MSOs can exert influence over many aspects of the schools they operate, including curriculum, instruction, hiring, leadership, professional development, and various related areas that bear directly on teaching and learning. More broadly, as the article by Jacqueline Baxter and Anna John in this special issue illustrates, these MSOs play a role in translating policy mandates, local community needs, and professional expertise into specific educational visions and strategies as well as systems for operationalising these. Furthermore, these new MSOs now form part of the larger middle tier in the systems in which they operate, with significant implications for larger societal concerns, such as equity, segregation, inclusion and efficiency. The three MSO types we focus on here have developed in context-specific ways, meaning that they differ in various non-trivial aspects. However, the reason for studying them alongside each other here is that they have a number of features in common, including: