The Dramatic Turnaround of Two Welsh Schools 

From the Marshall Memo #452

In this Kappan article, Sam Stringfield (University of Cincinnati), David Reynolds (University of Southampton, UK), and Eugene Schaffer (University of Maryland/Baltimore County) report on the application of High-Reliability Organization (HRO) principles to two failing secondary schools in a high-poverty area of southern Wales. These principles have been applied to air-traffic control towers, nuclear power plants, and electric grids where performance at a very high level of reliability is essential at all times, without any critically cascading errors. 

The application of HRO principles to these two schools from 1996 to 2011 produced significant gains. In one school, the percent of students scoring at high levels went from 14 to 54; in the second school the percent rose from 31 to 93. In both schools, this was more than two and a half times the national improvement rate, ending up ten percentage points above the national average. When the schools were inspected recently, both earned the top grade – Excellent. 

How did the schools achieve such gains? Stringfield, Reynolds, and Schaffer describe a process that involved all key stakeholders from the beginning and worked to prevent errors in critical areas that might cascade into organizational failures. They also put in place a process of continuous improvement. Here are twelve steps in their HRO process:

• Acknowledge the new realities faced by today’s young people. “A generation earlier,” say the authors, “students’ failure to thrive in school was unfortunate, but did not dictate their economic future. By the end of the 20^th century and even more so today, lack of success in school has very severe long-term effects on students’ lives.” Each school faced the fact that failure to help all students succeed was unacceptable. The core principle boiled down to this: “For the good of the students and the good of the community, we had to work toward universal success.” 

• Establish high, clear, shared goals. Schools agreed to aim for 90% of students achieving at high levels on national examinations. This seemed impossible at first, but once they saw a steep upward trajectory, the schools gained confidence and momentum.

• Build and make regular use of data systems. So teachers and administrators could see and discuss student achievement, the schools developed real-time availability of understandable information on each student, including daily attendance, disciplinary information, and achievement. 

• Reach higher. The shared data got adults collaborating with each other and with students. “Teachers shared experiences of what worked with various children, often noting student strengths that other teachers hadn’t known existed but could build on,” say the authors. “The evolving data sets created a series of ‘virtuous spirals’ in which students and teachers recognize that a student’s potential is higher than previously imagined, and problems are noted and addressed before more serious problems develop.” 

• Establish standard operating procedures. The most successful practices for moving students around their buildings, organizing curriculum, teaching content, observing classrooms, and visiting other schools were rapidly made routine. School leaders constantly exchanged information on “the little things that matter.” 

• Embrace flexibility. Both schools recognized that ossification of rules was a threat to improvement, so everyone was empowered to identify flaws in standard operating procedures and they constantly evolved.

• Hire with school goals in mind. Rather than conducting national searches, the schools hired leaders from within, looking for people who had shown the greatest enthusiasm for the HRO logic, language, and processes. 

• Honor best practices. These schools resisted the tendency to bounce from one “latest thing” to another, and leadership transitions have not resulted in veering off course. Leaders have been careful to integrate new practices with the original high-reliability logic model. 

• Engage in rigorous, multi-directional performance evaluations. “Headteachers and deputies now spend much more time in classrooms,” say Stringfield, Reynolds, and Schaffer. “Students and teachers now expect almost daily visits… These occur without overall loss of professional autonomy or confidence.” Feedback from administrators and peers is frequent and informal.

• Keep facilities and key equipment in good working order. At the beginning of the turnaround, the principal asked staff and parents to clean up graffiti, pick up trash, and paint classrooms. After that, there was zero tolerance for anything that degraded the facilities. 

• Praise the troops. Principals made a point of giving credit for the schools’ accomplishments to teachers and middle-level administrators.

• Take a long view. Local policymakers have been persuaded to resist making budget cuts so that the improvement process could take root. 

One of the most remarkable things in these schools’ turnaround is that they have continued to use high-reliability organization principles in the ten years since the formal project ended. The authors quote Hargreaves and Fink (2006): “The first challenge of change is to ensure that it’s desirable, and the second challenge is to make it doable; then the biggest challenge of all is to make it durable and sustainable.” These schools did all three.

“Making Best Practice Standard – and Lasting” by Sam Stringfield, David Reynolds, and Eugene Schaffer in Phi Delta Kappan, September 2012 (Vol. 94, #1, p. 45-50), www.kappanmagazine.org; Stringfield can be reached at sam.stringfield@uc.edu.