As schools respond to higher expectations for student learning, school staffs are uniting around innovations that show the greatest promise for improving student learning. This paper examines one particular staff-development initiative, the Northwest Initiative for Teaching and Learning (NWIFTL), and the leadership actions that support and sustain the individual school-development projects. The NWIFTL is a partnership of four Seattle-area public-school districts, two universities, the state offices of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and Commission on Student Learning, and the Stuart Foundation. The initiative funds modest staff-development projects in a total of 19 schools across the 4 partner-school districts. The report focuses on centers of leadership and asks whether these projects reflect traditional principal leadership, or whether they represent a new opportunity for others to participate in meaningful direction of professional development in schools. It draws from a study that used survey data and case studies to examine the partner schools. Findings show that all 17 of the responding schools had staff-development efforts under way. School-based plans were shaped by a combination of building, district, and state decisions and directives, and schools indicated that their NWIFTL projects were linked to many other staff-development efforts in the schools. Contains 20 references. (RJM)