Mario I. Acosta

Mario Acosta

Mario Acosta, EdD, is an award-winning educator, accomplished author, and highly regarded speaker and consultant. He spent 20 years of his educational career as a teacher, instructional coach, assistant principal, academic director, and principal leading schools with diverse profiles in the state of Texas. He was named the 2022 Principal of the Year in the State of Texas while he was the principal at Westwood High School, a U.S. News & World Report top-50 campus and member of the High Reliability Schools (HRS) Network.

Dr. Acosta has had success in leading schools of all sizes, with students and teachers from a variety of backgrounds, communities, and socio-economic status. Dr. Acosta has led “school turnaround” in high poverty schools in the State of Texas at both the middle and high school levels which yielded immediate and significant growth in student achievement data. Furthermore, under his leadership, Westwood High School was recognized as a top 1% campus in the nation for their academic achievement and college/career readiness.

Dr. Acosta is the author of The Schools Our Students Deserve: A Comprehensive Framework for Shaping Exceptional School Culture. He is also the coauthor of several books including Five Big Ideas for Leading a High Reliability School with Robert J. Marzano and Phil B. Warrick; Culture Champions: Teachers Supporting a Healthy Classroom Culture; Culture Keepers: Leaders Creating a Healthy School Culture; and Professional Learning Communities at Work and High-Reliability Schools: Cultures of Continuous Learning.

In 2022, Dr. Acosta joined the Marzano Resources-Solution Tree team and works as an author and national presenter. Dr. Acosta specializes in campus-level implementation of effective campus culture, High Reliability Schools, Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), instructional improvement, response to intervention, effective teaching strategies for English Language Learners (ELLs), and standards-referenced reporting. As an HRS certifier, Dr. Acosta works with K–12 schools and districts across the United States as they progress through the various levels of certification. Dr. Acosta also serves as an adjunct professor in the educational leadership master’s degree program at the University of Texas at Austin.

Mario holds a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Texas and a superintendent certification in the state of Texas. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Texas and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Lamar University.