MarzanoResources.com/HRSExcellence Just how valid and reliable is the High Reliability Schools framework? The High Reliability Schools (HRS) certification model was first introduced to the K−12 world of education in 2013. Since its inception, more than 800 schools have earned over 1,200 certifications across the country. As is the case with all educational models, it should be scrutinized relative to the research supporting it. Much of this research is summarized or cited in the book 5 Big Ideas for Leading High Reliability Schools (Marzano, Acosta, and Warrick, 2024). At its core the HRS model requires schools to determine their current status regarding five levels of school effectiveness, set growth goals in each area, and provide evidence that they have reached those goals: Safe, Supportive, and Collaborative Culture Standards-Referenced Reporting Competency-Based Education Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Effective Teaching in Every Classroom 5 4 3 2 1 As such, HRS is ostensibly a measurement process. Measurement processes are judged in terms of their reliability and validity. Reliability is commonly defined as how precise a measurement process is. Described in a different way, a measurement process is reliable if it mitigates the error that commonly occurs in all forms of measurement. The HRS model demonstrates this in a number of ways. First it has established high reliability coefficients (e.g., ranging form .80 to .92) for the survey data it collects. Second, it involves clear and concrete criteria for the scales that are used to rank the current status for each school involved in the certification process. That ranking system includes the following values: not attempting, beginning, developing, applying, and sustaining. Additionally, the process for assigning a level to a school involves a rigid decision-making protocol depicted in the exhibit on the next page. Finally, the HRS measurement process involves two levels of review before certification is granted at any level. Initially, one reviewer works with a school to help educators submit appropriate data. Once the initial reviewer judges a school to be qualified for a given level of certification, the submitted data are reviewed a second time by different members of the certification team. Validity is commonly defined as the extent to which an instrument measures what it is designed to measure. At a more technical level, there are three major types of validity and the HRS framework addresses all three of them: content validity, criterion-related validity, and construct validity. Content validity is the extent to which the measurement instrument addresses the critical content relative to the domain being measured. In this case that domain is school effectiveness. As described in depth in the book 5 Big Ideas for Leading a High Reliability School, the HRS model is based on a rigorous and comprehensive analysis of the school effectiveness research dating back to the 1970s and continuing up through the meta-analytic research syntheses of the 2020s (e.g., Hattie, 2023). Criterion-related validity is the extent to which the measurement instrument predicts performance relative to concrete actions and behaviors in a domain. The HRS model addresses this in two ways. First, it articulates a clear logic model that shows the predicted effects of certification for each of the five levels on teachers and students, with a particular emphasis on students’ performance on standardized tests. Second, the scales used to rate schools predict how well those schools will be able to provide concrete evidence of the effectiveness of the various programs and practices they employ at each of the certification levels. Finally, construct validity refers to BY ROBERT J. MARZANO FEATURED ARTICLE
