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Demographics
Marana Unified School District serves nearly 13,000 students with around 1,700 teachers and staff. Every school in the district has achieved Level 1 High Reliability Schools certification and is actively working toward certification at Levels 2 and 3. Marana’s mission is to “challenge all students to achieve academic and personal excellence in a rigorous, relevant, and supportive learning environment.”
12,860 students
- 25.5% free and reduced lunch
- 10% students with special needs
Marana Unified School District's Challenge
At the beginning of 2022, Marana Unified School District was hard at work balancing numerous initiatives to continuously improve student outcomes. But according to Kristin Reidy, the district’s assistant superintendent, while Marana’s schools already had strong, long-lasting programs and practices in place, many were being operated in disparate ways. Additionally, schools did not always receive equitable support and resources, limiting both individual school and districtwide efficiency and consistency. “We didn’t need a ton of new [programs],” Kristin explained. “We needed alignment to get everything moving.”
But moving from a highly autonomous collection of schools to a unified and collaborative network would require a cultural shift across the district. To coordinate this transformation, Marana turned to Marzano Resources’ High Reliability Schools (HRS) framework. District leadership committed to having every school eventually attain certifications at HRS Levels 1, 2, and 3. Setting this multilevel certification goal at the beginning of the work communicated to school leaders and staff that HRS would not be a transitory initiative but a long-term process of systemic change.
Later that year, schools began administering HRS surveys to assess strengths and identify areas for growth at Level 1 of the framework. The improvement and certification efforts officially launched in the summer of 2023.
Implementation
“Support must precede accountability . . . HRS has helped us organize and systemize our work.”
Marana schools adopted new operational structures to implement initiatives and address issues. “We leveraged the collaborative team as the engine at the school sites,” Kristin explained.
For example, the district had identified elementary literacy as a priority and created a literacy task force that recommended a new reading curriculum. Each school created collaborative teams focused on literacy to facilitate this curricular change and improve literacy instruction. Kristin explained that while changes like a new curriculum often cause a short-term dip in performance as teachers and students adjust, the support from the HRS structures helped Marana avoid this drop-off.
As the district worked toward Level 1 certification, they began planning for Level 2, which emphasized effective teaching. According to Kristin, work at Level 2 allowed teachers to become reacquainted with the model of instruction. Administrators and teachers spent an entire year reviewing the model. For the first time, every teacher had an instructional growth goal tied to the district model, allowing for continuous improvement in instructional practice and the alignment of professional learning opportunities to teachers’ individual goals.
The HRS framework also ensured continuity during leadership changes. In 2024, the district had four new principals and five new assistant principals, including three positions filled by internal candidates. The common language and expectations around HRS enabled leaders to quickly adjust to their new roles, ensuring smooth and consistent operations across their schools.
“Support must precede accountability,” Kristin emphasized, making sure that Marana schools received consistent district support, such as instructional coaches, to meet high standards. “HRS has helped us organize and systemize our work,” she said.
Results
This structured approach has contributed to districtwide success in both individual initiatives and overall school performance. The entire district has achieved Level 1 certification and continues to deepen its understanding and implementation of HRS. Every school is actively working on Levels 2 and 3, with several having already achieved certification at Level 2.
The emphasis on improving elementary literacy, supported by a new curriculum, collaborative teams, and enhanced instruction, has led to year-over-year increases in the percentage of K–3 students reading above grade level.
State accountability grades for Marana schools have also improved since the district began working with the HRS framework. Of the district’s 17 schools, 13 received an A or B rating from the state of Arizona in 2022 (prior to the introduction of HRS), while 15 earned an A or B in 2024. This improvement included an increase from six A-rated schools in 2022 to 10 in 2024.
Adopting the HRS framework across the district has allowed every school to share the benefits of improvements in culture, instruction, and curriculum within the first three levels while also aligning expectations and operations.
As Kristin explained, “HRS provided the framework for us to engage in systemic change.”
Percent of MUSD Elementary Students Reading at or Above Grade Level for Cohorts (2022–2023)
MUSD State Accountability Percentage
Points Earned (District Average)
Why High Reliability Schools?
Dr. Marzano’s vision for K–12 education is simple: the vast majority of schools can be highly effective in promoting student learning. To show how, he created the Marzano High Reliability Schools framework. This framework, based on 40 years of educational research, defines five progressive levels of performance that a school must master to become a high reliability school—where all students learn the content and skills they need for success in college, careers, and beyond.
