As educators, our goals are improving student achievement and ensuring teaching and learning interventions at national, regional, institutional and even classroom level are successful, cost / resource-effective, measurable and deliver lasting impact. However, examples of where language policy and language teaching and learning interventions fail to meet these goals are abundant around the world. One of the main reasons behind these failures is the misalignment of the interdependent elements that are involved in an education system - standards, curriculum, assessment and delivery of curriculum. 

The design of interventions in language teaching must consider systemic alignment, regardless of scale or context. In the classroom, in institutions, or at the national policy level, there is a guiding principle which will support effective interventions and successful outcomes: the Comprehensive Learning System (O'Sullivan 2020). 

In this presentation we will introduce systemic alignment, the fundamental condition of a comprehensive learning system. We will then use three case studies of recent educational interventions the authors have been involved in to discuss how systematic alignment was achieved and how this improved learning outcomes. These case studies will report on projects in Singapore, Japan and India, and each demonstrates the implementation or effect of systemic alignment.

Following these case study examples, we will explore the applicability of the comprehensive learning system for classroom teachers.