Gain key insights on leading a High Reliability School from experts who have years of experience guiding schools and districts through the process. HRS success requires strong leaders who understand the five big ideas shared in this book. With data-driven approaches and research-backed strategies, the authors demonstrate not only how to help schools thrive but also why their methods succeed.
This book will help administrators of current or aspiring K–12 High Reliability Schools: - Understand the roles of all educators in high reliability organizations
- Unpack the five big ideas of high reliability leadership and how these ideas relate to their own school or district
- Utilize practical tools to better apply the HRS framework
- Improve school culture, student achievement, and organizational efficacy
- Sustain highly effective school systems
Contents: Introduction: The High Reliability Schools Framework
Big Idea 1: Becoming a High Reliability School Is a Measurement Process
Big Idea 2: Certain Levels of the HRS Framework Have a More Direct Relationship to Student Achievement as Measured by External Tests Than Others
Big Idea 3: Schools Must Tailor Programs and Practices to Their Specific Needs
Big Idea 4: Without Adequate Focus and Energy, Even Effective Programs and Practices Will Start to Degrade
Big Idea 5: Standards-Referenced Reporting and Competency-Based Education Are at the Top of the HRS Framework Because of Their Magnitude of Change and Their Focus on Equity
Epilogue
Appendix: HRS Measurement Tools
References and Resources
Index
Robert J. Marzano, PhD, is cofounder and chief academic officer of Marzano Resources in Denver, Colorado. During his fifty years in the field of education, he has worked with educators as a speaker and trainer and has authored more than fifty books and two hundred articles on topics such as instruction, assessment, writing and implementing standards, cognition, effective leadership, and school intervention. His books include The New Art and Science of Teaching, Leaders of Learning, Making Classroom Assessments Reliable and Valid, The Classroom Strategies Series, Managing the Inner World of Teaching, A Handbook for High Reliability Schools, A Handbook for Personalized Competency-Based Education, and The Highly Engaged Classroom. His practical translations of the most current research and theory into classroom strategies are known internationally and are widely practiced by both teachers and administrators.
Philip B. Warrick, EdD, spent the first twenty-five years of his education career as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, and superintendent and has experience leading schools in the states of Nebraska and Texas. He was named 1998 Nebraska Outstanding New Principal of the Year and was the 2005 Nebraska State High School Principal of the Year. In 2003, he was one of the initial participants in the Nebraska Educational Leadership Institute, conducted by the Gallup Corporation at Gallup University in Omaha. In 2008, Dr. Warrick was hired as the campus principal at Round Rock High School in Round Rock, Texas. In 2010, he was invited to be an inaugural participant in the Texas Principals’ Visioning Institute, where he collaborated with other principals from the state to develop a vision for effective practices in Texas schools. In 2011, Dr. Warrick joined the Solution Tree–Marzano Resources team, and works as an author and global consultant in the areas of High Reliability School leadership, instruction and instructional coaching, assessment, grading, and collaborative teaming.
Mario Acosta, EdD, spent twenty years of his educational career as a teacher, instructional coach, assistant principal, academic director, and principal leading schools with diverse profiles in the state of Texas. He was named the 2022 Principal of the Year in the state of Texas while he was the principal at Westwood High School, a U.S. News & World Report top-fifty campus and member of the High Reliability Schools (HRS) Network. Dr. Acosta has had success in leading schools of all sizes, with students and teachers from a variety of backgrounds, communities, and socioeconomic statuses. Dr. Acosta has led school turnaround in high-poverty schools in the state of Texas at both the middle and high school levels, which yielded immediate and significant growth in student achievement data. Furthermore, under his leadership, Westwood High School was recognized as a top 1 percent campus in the nation for its academic achievement and college and career readiness. In 2022, Dr. Acosta joined the Solution Tree–Marzano Resources team, and now works as an author and national presenter. Dr. Acosta specializes in campus-level implementation of effective campus culture, High Reliability Schools, professional learning communities (PLCs), instructional improvement, response to intervention, effective teaching strategies for English learners (ELs), and standards-referenced reporting. As an HRS certifier, Dr. Acosta works with K–12 schools and districts across the United States as they progress through the various levels of certification. Dr. Acosta also serves as a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he prepares students in the educational leadership master’s degree program to become school leaders.
