How can the nation best meet the challenge of getting the leadership needed in K-12 public education to improve teaching and learning so that every child can be a successful learner? A new Wallace Perspective offers a working hypothesis for reaching that goal based on key lessons from the Foundation’s extensive work with two dozen states and scores of urban districts since 2000. Such a cohesive leadership system, as envisioned, would feature well-coordinated state, district and school-level policies and practices aimed at ensuring that the standards, training and working conditions of school principals are far more supportive than is currently the case to their success as leaders of learning. The paper describes the potential as well as the challenges for achieving such a system and ends with a series of questions aimed at promoting discussion and deeper understanding of this working concept.