Hundreds of outstanding schools could see their status downgraded if their teaching fails to match the standards of the institution, Ofsted announced on Thursday.
The new chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, said there needed to be "clear and demanding criteria" for a school to be judged good or outstanding, adding such schools have to have the teaching to match.
Concerns have previously been raised that a number of schools have been judged as outstanding by inspectors, despite not receiving this rating for their teaching.
It is understood that up to 1,000 outstanding schools, around a quarter in total, could have their status reviewed.
The news conflicts with the controversial announcement from education secretary Michael Gove who said such schools would not be subjected to any more Ofsted inspections.
Ofsted said this would not mean a return to routine assessment, and that decisions on whether to review schools will be made based on risk assessments.
In his first keynote speech this morning, Sir Michael said: "We need clear and demanding criteria for a school to be judged good or outstanding.
"A good school should have at least good teaching, and an outstanding school should have outstanding teaching.
"Good and outstanding leadership of teaching and learning drives improvement and knows that the culture of the school and the progress of pupils depend on it."
Sir Michael, who is speaking at an event for head teachers in central London, has already announced plans for unannounced inspections for all schools.
There are also proposals to scrap the satisfactory rating and replace it with "requires improvement".