The South African educational system has experienced many significant changes in the past 5 years which are intended to facilitate paradigm shifts in terms of ownership of schools, equity, wider access, more mobility, and modernization. New legislation and policy frameworks propose numerous strategic recommendations. It was against this backdrop of new legislation and policy formation, the concept of effective schools, and the need for capacity building of institutions and individuals, that the Delta Foundation's Centres of Learning Project was born. The Project was designed to develop a replicable framework for the development of centers of learning through building governance, management, and administration capacity of leadership of school communities. After discussing the concept of effective schools, this paper describes the vision, mission, and objectives of the Centres of Learning Project, discusses project sponsors and project management, and explains the research and development process used in the project. It then describes the leadership training program and discusses the consolidation and practical implementation of the leadership training. Finally, the paper describes program evaluation and lessons learned. The proposed model for the development of centers of learning includes: scientific needs assessment; a training program on personal effectiveness and leadership skills; a followup workshop; a regular feedback session; a continuous monitoring of progress; and a replication of the process to other schools. (SM)