The Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV) Leadership Standards Framework (the LSF) was published by the CECV in 2005. It was the outcome of a co-operative venture between the Catholic Education Offices of Melbourne and Sale and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). The LSF is organised as a set of ‘Leadership Actions’ within five domains or ‘Areas’.

This Report begins with a review of the most current research on school leadership , which forms (or should form), the evidence base for all leadership standards. Pointing out that educational leadership is a sub-field in the wider area of leadership research, it identifies major trends in school leadership as presented in the literature, e.g. ‘transformational leadership’, ‘distributed leadership’, and ‘teacher leadership’. It also describes the concept of ‘servant leadership’ noting that elements of this seem to be particularly appropriate in the context of the Catholic school.

Section 2 presents a summary of the information obtained in a series of broad consultations with senior officers from the Catholic Education Office Melbourne (CEOM) and regions, and school principals and teachers.