This policy paper summarizes the research on change and effective staff development to drive an outcomes-based, results oriented approach to increase student success. The paper provides a discussion of the following ideas necessary for practice: (1) participants must be involved in planning and developing training; (2) training must be relevant, sequentially structured, supported over time, and linked to individual participant competence; (3) individual schools are not the unit of change, but the center of change; (4) expectations of staff need to be clearly articulated and individuals need to be held accountable for learning and changing; (5) staff development must be an integral component of organizational development; (6) school leaders face an equally pressing slate of "new workforce skills"; (7) effective staff development must accommodate the change process; (8) reflect unequivocal and ongoing support from district-level and building-level administrators; and (9) staff development for student improvement means all staff are responsible for the learning needs of all students. The paper includes a chart that displays a continuum of effective outcomes-based staff development practices; a list of necessary actions in Kansas; and two appendixes that provide information on existing outcomes based staff development practices and proposed revision of Quality Performance Accreditation (QPA) outcome #9. (LL)