Author Insights

High Reliability Schools™ Framework

Creating the conditions in which others can be successful is one of the highest duties of leadership. For this purpose, we created the High Reliability Schools™ (HRS) handbook and framework. The HRS framework serves as a strategic guide that helps school leaders focus on implementing, improving, and monitoring specific conditions within their schools over time. The HRS framework offers the concept of leading indicators, which are specific conditions known to be associated with continuous school improvement based on research and experience. The leading indicators help school leaders focus on the “what” to think about, but they do not tell school leaders the specific “how” to implement the leading indicators in their schools. The decisions on how to implement a leading indicator are left to school leaders as they consider the needs and unique aspects of their own schools. This approach to leadership allows the HRS framework to serve as a districtwide framework for school operation that provides defined autonomy in leadership across any size of district.

The HRS framework also takes into account two key aspects of leadership, which include formal opportunities for teacher leadership in a school's operation. This encourages the realization that leadership is about action, not just position. It also includes establishing practices that help flatten some of the formal leadership structures in specific areas of a school. This creates a more collaborative approach on specific issues where teacher input and shared decision making are critical to establishing a successful culture of operation. The second idea embedded in the HRS framework is the concept of Transformative Leadership. “Transformative” indicates that leadership is the agent in transforming practices, and leaders are the catalyst for the change and own the responsibility to sustain specific initiatives without continually adding “another new thing.” In essence, the HRS framework is intended to keep schools focused on the right work over time, to allow the staff of the school to get good at specific initiatives without always chasing the next great quick fix. This in itself represents a condition in which others can be successful.

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