High Reliability Schools

constructed supports (Gredler, 2009). All constructivism emphasizes that learners construct meaning in an active, as opposed to passive, way (Oxford, 1997). Both the PLC process and the PYP framework tackle the fundamental question, What do we truly want students to understand, know, and be able to do? (DuFour et al., 2016). This core alignment between the PLC process and PYP framework underlines the compatibility of the two approaches, yet implementing the PLC process in a PYP school is perhaps more complex than in traditional school systems because it requires educators to look at their planning from a new perspective.

In their book Professional Learning Communities at Work and High Reliability Schools: Cultures of Continuous Learning, education leaders and researchers Robert Eaker and Robert J. Marzano (2020) present a model based on five hierarchical levels. The HRS model identifies the best practices to implement in schools to raise student achievement and puts forward a clear structure of how educators and leaders can create a school culture and implement structures to ensure all students are safe, healthy, and able to learn at high levels. The HRS model is based on wide-ranging research on issues such as teacher and school leader development, instructional strategies, assessment, and reporting. Eaker and Marzano (2020) identify and explain five levels of performance that define an HRS. • Level 1: Creating a safe, supportive, and collaborative culture • Level 2: Developing systems for effective teaching in every classroom • Level 3: Establishing a guaranteed and viable curriculum • Level 4: Introducing standards-referenced reporting • Level 5: Allowing students to personalize through competencybased education

In the HRS model, schools focus their resources to meet the requirements of each level before moving to the next level, eventually attaining level 5, that of an HRS.

In short, the HRS model puts forward an approach that monitors the relationship between actions a school takes and the effectiveness of those actions to produce the desired effects (Marzano, Warrick, Rains, & DuFour, 2018). As schools achieve each HRS level, the model calls on them to be both highly effective and learning progressive. Schools must maintain high levels of learning while ensuring students have time