Understanding Schools as High-Reliability Organizations: An Exploratory Examination of Teachers’ and School Leaders’ Perceptions of Success

Abstract

Drawing on research on high-reliability organizations, this interview-based qualitative case study employs four characteristics of such organizations as a lens for analyzing the operations of one very successful K–5 public school. Results suggest that the school had processes similar to those characteristic of high-reliability organizations: a commitment to a “dual bottom line” that clarifies what to achieve and what to avoid; reliance on “skeptical standardization” to bring consistency to the school's instruction; simultaneous use of “constrained improvisation” that empowered teaches to adapt standard procedures in response to student learning difficulties; and strategies for combining standardized and improvisational strategies.