Improving secondary students' academic achievement through a focus on reform reliability: 4- and 9-year findings from the High Reliability Schools project

Abstract

The authors describe a reform effort in which characteristics derived from High Reliability Organization research were used to shape whole school reform. Longitudinal analyses of outcome data from 12 Welsh secondary schools indicated that 4 years after the effort was initiated, student outcomes at the sites were strongly positive. Additional quantitative and qualitative data, gathered 5 years after the end of the intervention, indicated that the majority of the schools continued using the high reliability principles and continued making strong academic progress. Results are discussed in terms of the original High Reliability Schools model, systemic effects, and sustainability.

Keywords:

• school effectiveness
• school improvement
• continuous improvement
• sustainability of improvement

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their deep respect for and gratitude to the leaders and teachers of the Welsh HRS schools, both for their implementation efforts and their willingness to participate in follow-up interviews.

Notes

1. Note that the actual period of intervention was 3 years, but the intervention period spanned the time of 4 school years, so analyses of end-of-year GCSE testing is presented as a 4-year span between “pre-” and “post-intervention”.

2. Analyses of data from other districts will be presented in subsequent papers.

3. The GCSEs replaced the former Ordinary, or “O-level” examinations. The age-18 exams are still the Advanced, or “A-level” exams.

4. One of the English LEAs was recognized by the British Department of Education and Skills in 2005 as having the greatest 3-year GCSE gains in England.

5. The use of Panel data to make longitudinal comparisons in this study is justified by two facts. First, the N of GCSE-taking students in these groups of schools is always large (500+ within any group of schools), and relative to the USA, British schools serve very stable populations of students. When querried, heads estimated that the total in- and out-migration of students from their schools from age 11 to GCSE taking at 16 was consistently under 3%.

6. Note that the weighting allows the sum of the data to reflect means of students (as opposed to schools' scores). Note also that in the tables, addition and subtraction occasionally appear to be slightly off, this is due to rounding.