The history of educational reform and innovation is replete with good ideas or policies that fail to get implemented or that are successful in one situation but not in another. A missing ingredient in most failed cases is appreciation and use of what is called change knowledge: understanding and insight about the process of change and the key drivers that make for successful change in practice. The presence of change knowledge does not guarantee success, but its absence ensures failure. This knowledge is used to bring about system change across the three levels of school and community, district and state. Eight drivers to creating effective and lasting change are discussed in this article.