Eleven schools receive Highly Reliable Schools Level 1 certification
Eleven Lee County schools have been honored for their efforts to engage students.
The awards were made by Marzano Resources at the High Reliability Schools Summit, which was held in San Antonio, for achieving Level 1 Certification.
School District of Lee County Leadership and Professional Development executive director Lynn Herrell said the district’s goal is to continue to engage learners in meaningful and relevant activities to ultimately support and increase student achievement.
“Student achievement is the bar in which we measure our work,” she said. “Second only to classroom teachers, leadership contributes to what students learn at our school.”
The schools that achieved Level I certifications include:
• Bayshore Elementary
• Cape Coral Elementary
• Challenger Middle
• Cypress Lake Middle
• Diplomat Middle
• Edgewood Academy
• Hancock Creek Elementary
• Lexington Elementary
• Orangewood Elementary
• San Carlos Park Elementary
• Trafalgar Elementary
The schools, in the first cohort, were excited to work towards the certification, Herrell said, adding currently, in cohort three, there are three or four high schools participating, as well as K-8 schools.
“We are going to have four more cohorts coming. The beauty of this system is that it won’t matter who you put in the seat if the system is already in place,” she said of leadership.
There is a five-person team that goes through the training, which requires the principal, three teacher leaders and someone from the district.
“If the principal was replaced they have the leadership right there. They know the indicators,” Herrell said, adding that with a new principal there is a new personality, but you can trust the system. “Can you imagine how amazing that will be? With higher reliability, we know all of these factors are in place.”
Herrell said this year there have been eight new principals and 21 new assistant principals.
Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier said you have to look at the feel of the building to understand the success of a principal. That includes areas such as retention and turnover to understand the health of the building. The student data piece is also important because with the principal and staff working together you should see a movement in student achievement, Bernier said.
Professional Development Director Dr. Helen Martin said there are 25 essential leadership actions to create a school-wide plan for student achievement with Highly Reliable Schools. Those are broken down into five levels, which includes safe, supportive, and collaborative culture; effective teaching in every classroom; guaranteed and viable curriculum; standards-referenced reporting and competency-based education.
“The culture of the school cannot be underestimated,” Martin said. “Level one certification means each school has implemented systems to address school culture and collected data on the systems to have desired impact.”
She said the data is monitored over time with changes being made in real time to correct them.
“The schools submitted documents, videos and student data. Level 1 certification creates conditions and foundation for student achievement,” Martin said. “They were recognized last month during the summit. They are really ready to move onto Level 2 and 3. The hope is that all schools will achieve Level 1 certification.”
Marzano Resources created the high reliability school program to help schools transform into organizations that take proactive steps to ensure students success.
To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com