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Educational Administration Quarterly
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The Fail-Safe Schools Challenge: Leadership Possibilities From High Reliability Organizations

G. Thomas Bellamy

University of Washington-Bothell, tbellamy{at}uwb.edu

Lindy Crawford

College of Education at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

Laura Huber Marshall

College of Education at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

Gail A. Coulter

Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland

As public policies increasingly hold schools responsible for preventing school failure, experiences of other organizations that must operate with high reliability may be helpful. This article builds on previous studies of high reliability organizations to inquire how their strategies might inform efforts to improve reliability in loosely coupled professional organizations such as schools. The article draws on features of high reliability organizations to propose a three-part framework for fail-safe schools that includes (a) efforts to improve normal operations, (b) early detection of learning problems, and (c) rapid recovery from those problems, together with the school structures and cultures needed to support all three. Without assuming that the exact strategies used in very different organizations will work in schools, the article explores how high reliability organizations might serve as a metaphor that poses new questions for research, policy, and practice associated with school improvement and student learning.

Key Words: high reliability organizations • fail safe • reliability • normal operations • student learning

Educational Administration Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 3, 383-412 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0013161X04269862
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