Elementary and High Schools selected as High Reliability Schools Model Site 

Pierz Pioneer Elementary School and Pierz Healy High School announced today that they have been awarded, and accepted, the designation of  a High Reliability Schools (HRS) Model Site.

As part of the nationally-recognized Marzano Institute for Effective Schools’ HRS Framework that helps schools focus on specific, research-based conditions for continuous school improvement, the designation of a High Reliability Model Site lifts up  schools that have the capacity to produce consistently high achievement results with students year after year.  

Pierz has been on a journey with HRS for more than five years, working with nationally-recognized educational leaders to develop its own internal set of teams, structure, and consistent checking of outcomes in order to be considered as a Model Site.  It is an ongoing process to evolve through the five levels HRS identifies and schools are constantly tracking outcomes and making any needed adjustments.  

The five levels that the Marzano model examines include:

1. Safe and Supportive Collaborative Culture

2. Highly Effective Teaching 

3. Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum

4. Standards Referenced Reporting

5. Competency Based Education

“It takes sustained and committed leadership at every level of a school to create the conditions for all students to succeed,” said Kassidy Rice, Sourcewell’s senior director of education solutions. “Today, we celebrate Pierz for their dedication to implementing the HRS framework, while setting a benchmark for schools as a Model Site.”

Being selected as a Model Site will allow Pierz to access national experts in these areas who will work directly with staff.  It means other schools will visit Pierz to learn and see what is working well.  It also means Pierz will build relationships with other highly effective schools who are achieving amazing results.

Pierz Superintendent George Weber added: 

“We, at Pierz Schools, are very blessed to have enough stability, consistency, and hard-working positive people throughout our system to allow these components to provide the building blocks of our students’ educational experiences.

• Consistently high success requires teachers and other staff to master and implement skills and approaches that meet the various learners in a way that creates the best learning day and builds learning throughout the school year.

• It requires parents and students to support their teachers and their school and navigate the expectations and standards as children develop.

• It demands united leadership over time, where School Board, Administration and Teacher Leaders stay the course and hold to our core mission.”