Why mission matters more for (some) charter principals

Reflecting post-bureaucratic organisation theory, education reformers intended charter schools to empower school-level leaders, most typically principals, with autonomy to pursue clear, student-centred missions. Yet little research explores whether charter school principals have more power than traditional public school counterparts. We summarise the limited literature addressing the issue. Second, we present findings from interviews with nine charter leaders from six US states who have experience in leading both charter and traditional public schools, a unique data set. Both prior research and our findings suggest that generally, leaders feel more likely to be held accountable for results in charter schools than in traditional public schools. Furthermore, without oversight from school boards and central office administrators, charter leaders report having more power over budget and personnel, and more ability to collaborate with teachers. At the same time, standalone charter leaders report needing business support and training, while those from charter management organizations feel free to focus on academic success.     

Choice,Competition, and Cognition: How Arizona Charter School Leaders Interpret and Respond to Market Pressures

ABSTRACT

A key goal of school choice policies is to generate competition between schools, which should theoretically drive school leaders to improve their programs to attract and retain students. However, few studies examine how principals actually perceive and define competition. This article empirically examines school leaders’ conceptions of competition and their strategic behaviors using cognitive frameworks from new institutional theory, including sensemaking theory. Drawing on data from qualitative interviews with 30 charter school leaders in Arizona, we explore how leaders’ cognitive understandings of competition influence their actions in an educational “marketplace.” We find charter school leaders make meaning of “competition” in different ways, influenced by their local contexts and their conceptions of what actions are legitimate. Our work suggests that it is important to study the meanings of competition to school leaders, as it has important implications for schools’ competitive responses and, ultimately, student outcomes. Our work has important implications for policy makers seeking to expand school choice as it sheds light on how competition works in practice, with implications for equity and access.     

Towards a theoretical model of middle leadership in schools

While there has been considerable research activity in the area of middle management / middle leadership since the late 1990s, the concept remains under-theorised and ambiguities persist in relation to who middle managers or middle leaders are and what they do. The recent shift in terminology in the literature from ‘middle management’ to ‘middle leadership’ alludes to evolution in the roles these leaders play in schools. However, without a theoretical model to use as a point of reference it is difficult to describe the nature of such evolution and even more difficult to identify implications for teacher productivity, student outcomes and school effectiveness. This article proposes a model of middle leadership in schools based on an extensive review of the literature. The Middle Leadership in Schools (MLiS) model describes factors that influence middle leadership, possible influences of middle leadership on schools, a typology of roles middle leaders perform and how they might perform them. The article concludes with implications for research and theory building in a still-emergent area within the broader field of educational leadership.     

Considering Legal Identity as a Critical Variable of Interest in Charter Schools Research

ABSTRACT

Fifteen years ago charter schools were considered a radical addition to the public education landscape. Today they present a viable educational choice in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Much has been written about charter schools, their purpose, effectiveness, and future. However, to date, much of the dialogue has focused on ideology and methodology resulting in a discussion framed as “charter vs. noncharter.” Overlooked have been the more substantive issues that would provide a more accurate framework for studying charter schools. We propose that the education policy and research communities need to identify the critical variables in the charter schools sector that affect both student outcomes and education policy. One such major variable is the legal status of a charter school, that is, its identity as a local education agency (LEA) or as part of an existing LEA and the charter school's linkage to other parts of the public education system that flows from that identity. Differentiating charter schools according to their legal status will allow stakeholders to categorize these schools in a manner that succinctly captures critical differences. doi:10.1300/J467v01n03_11     

University‐school collaboration and needs assessment in the training of student leadership and peer support in Hong Kong

One hundred seventy secondary schools in Hong Kong responded to a questionnaire designed to assess their needs for leadership training of students in different domains of school activities and their endorsement of university‐school collaboration in these activities. The questionnaire also assessed the extent and degree of support and involvement that schools intended to provide in training programs and in organized school activities for students to assume leadership roles in schools. Findings indicated that schools were in need of student leaders in different student activities, especially in those less related to academic concerns. It was stressed that in providing opportunities for student leaders to continue practicing their skills in school activities, other students might eventually benefit through participation in school activities and peer support programs organized by student leaders.     

School Leader Appraisal — A Tool to Strengthen School Leaders' Pedagogical Leadership and Skills for Teacher Management?

With increasing school autonomy, often coupled with greater accountability requirements, school leaders are increasingly responsible for new human resource management tasks. Policies to improve the teaching workforce, therefore, cannot do without policies to improve the school leadership profession. Teachers' effectiveness depends, among others, on effective school leaders who shape teachers' working environment and influence their motivations. Furthermore, as recent research indicates, school leaders are the second most important school-level factor affecting, even if mainly indirectly through their influence on teachers, student learning after classroom instruction. Considering the role school leaders play for the effective school-level management of teachers and for teaching and learning through their pedagogical leadership, it is essential that school leaders are adequately prepared and supported for their role. As part of their school reform programmes, more and more countries have been introducing a range of evaluation and assessment policies to improve school, school leadership and teaching practices. The individual appraisal of schools leaders and teachers is a key component of evaluation and assessment policies. This article explores if, and how, individual school leader appraisal can develop school leaders' pedagogical leadership, a key element of which is teacher management. It analyses the policy approaches of several European countries and the extent to which formal frameworks in these countries focus on developing pedagogical leadership. The article concludes with ideas for policy to strengthen appraisal as a tool to improve school leaders' practices and behaviours and their competencies for pedagogical leadership and teacher management.     

Examination of access and equity by gender,race, and ethnicity in a non-traditional leadership development programme in the United States

In developing the next generation of school leadership, school districts across the United States and internationally must consider who is being promoted, the training they are able to access beyond traditional university degree work, the schools in which these emerging leaders enter their first principalships, and how prepared these new leaders are to succeed and remain in the role. This study explores international literature regarding school leader, particularly new leader, development, and placement. The study discusses what is happening internationally in terms of the gender distribution of school leaders and the literature of non-traditional leadership development. To explore gender, race, and ethnicity in hiring and promotion practices, the study employs the methodology of case study analysis. This case study analysis formed from a need to understand the changing dynamics of race, gender, and ethnicity in school leadership in four American school districts participating in a non-traditional regional leadership development programme. These districts, in the Richmond, Virginia (USA) metro area, are experiencing changing student demographics by race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. Specifically, the study addresses the demographic profile of those seeking leadership, the changing demographics of these communities, and the professional assignment of participating early career leaders.     

Instructional leadership and the charter school principal

Few studies have investigated what occurs inside charter schools with respect to instructional leadership, teaching, and learning. To address this gap in the literature, this case study examines two major issues: how the principals at four charter schools enact instructional leadership in their respective schools, and what barriers the principals encounter when enacting instructional leadership at their school sites. The results highlight three main categories of instructional leadership practices: developing a school mission, managing curriculum and instruction, and promoting school climate and culture. In addition, the data reveal that while the principals attempted to engage in instructional leadership, they encountered barriers related to budgeting and staffing. The paper broadens the scholarly understanding of instructional leadership in schools with high levels of autonomy.     

Evaluating Education Reform: Students' Views of Their Charter School Experience

Abstract

One aspect of charter schools that is often overlooked when one evaluates their success is the support that they receive from students. By using data from a survey of Texas charter school students, supplemented with statistics from the Texas Education Agency, the author examined students' satisfaction with their charter school, especially as it compared with their previous educational experiences. Results suggest that when students perceived that the charter school had higher quality teachers, better classes, and a more caring environment, they were more satisfied with their charter school than with their previous school. Furthermore, students most at risk for dropping out also were those who tended to be more supportive of their charter school.     

Do Charters Pose a Threat to Private Schools? Evidence from Nationally Representative Surveys of U.S. Parents

Charter schools increasingly challenge both district and private schools for student enrollments in the United States. With more parents able to choose among the sectors, the success of each in attracting students will turn in part on the levels of satisfaction provided to families who enroll. We analyze data from two nationally representative surveys of parental perceptions. Private school parents are the most satisfied with the climate, student behavior, and school-to-parent communications in their child’s school, but the gap between private school parents and charter parents is much less than the one between private school parents and those in district schools. We find little difference across sectors in satisfaction with school infrastructure and in school–parent communications about student behavior. Because charters, like district schools, are free, this narrowing of the satisfaction gap between the tuition-based and free school sectors may erode the size of the private sector.     

Placement schools as professional learning communities in teacher education

This article investigates how schoolteachers’, school leaders’ and college teachers’ involvement affects placement schools as professional learning communities. Norwegian teacher education is used as a case. The first part builds on a survey among schoolteachers and mentors at 111 placement schools in Norway. It documents great variety in the level of engagement. Interviews with mentors, school leaders and college teachers reveal how cooperation between colleges and placement schools, as well as the school leaders’ commitment, influences the quality of placement. The school leaders’ role proves to be important in developing the schools as professional learning communities, and they seem to have a significant impact on the work of the mentors. The data also show that there is a need for a more substantial cooperation between college teachers and mentors about the student teachers’ professional development as well as a need for a more systematic integration of learning in the two learning contexts.     

Learners,initiators, servants: The self-images of victorian principals in the 1990s

The professional self-images of principals are integrally related to how they perceive and exercise leadership in specific school settings. This study of a balanced sample of male and female leaders from a cross-section of Victorian schools in the late 1990s reveals that there are key variations related to sectorial identity, level and scale of school, institutional histories and even student gender. It supports the development of nuanced theories about leadership and gender that combat essentialist stereotypes which have dominated in past discourse. It also combats simplistic claims based on school level, sector and student gender. The findings carry implications for principal selection and development which require fine-grained discernment by practitioners and theorists in the future.     

Twice considered: Charter schools and student achievement in Utah

A relatively small state, Utah presents an interesting case to study charter schools given its friendly policy environment and its significant growth in charter school enrollment. Based on longitudinal student-level data from 2004 to 2009, this paper utilizes two approaches to evaluate the Utah charter school effectiveness: (a) hierarchical linear growth models with matched sample, and (b) general methods of moments with student-fixed effects regressions. Both methods yield consistent results that charter schools on average perform slightly worse as compared to traditional public schools, a result that is primarily affected by the low effectiveness and high student mobility of newly opened charter schools. Interestingly, when charter schools gain more experience they become as effective as traditional public schools, and in some cases more effective than traditional public schools. This research has implications for local and state charter school policies, particularly policies that avoid “start-up” costs associated with new charter schools.     

Leadership identity in a small island developing state: the Jamaican context

While the role of leadership in improving schools is attracting more worldwide attention, there is a need for more research investigating leaders’ experiences in different national contexts. Using focus-group and semi-structured interview data, this paper explores the background, identities and experiences of a small group of Jamaican school leaders who were involved in a leadership development programme. By drawing on the concepts of culture, socialisation and identity, the paper examines how the participants’ journeys of becoming and being school leaders are influenced by national-level societal and cultural issues, experienced at a local level. The findings suggest that in becoming school leaders, the participants perceived that they had a strong sense of agency in attempting to change the social structures within the institutions they lead and in the surrounding local communities, which in turn, they hope, will have a lasting effect on the nation as a whole.     

An Institutional Theory Analysis of Charter Schools: Addressing Institutional Challenges to Scale

This article presents a conceptual framework derived from institutional theory in sociology that offers two competing policy contexts in which charter schools operate—a bureaucratic frame versus a decentralized frame. An analysis of evolving charter school types based on three underlying theories of action is considered. As charter school leaders pursue new and different forms of schooling, they are challenged by well-established bureaucratic rules and norms that define what it means to be a legitimate school. Microlevel institution-building efforts, however, may represent viable alternatives to the institutional order of public education as charter school leaders attempt to achieve scale.     

School Management Teams’ Instructional Leadership Role in Closing the Achievement Gap in Impoverished Schools

Abstract

Although the South African government has made numerous strides in addressing equity and social justice in education, significant inequalities still exist in learner performance, especially in many impoverished schools. One of the reasons cited for poor learner achievement is the ineffective leadership role of school management teams (SMTs). This article reports on a study that explored the instructional leadership role of SMTs of public schools with the view to closing the achievement gap in poor performing schools. To gain better insights into the SMTs’ realities and experiences of their work as curriculum leaders, qualitative research located within the interpretivist paradigm was undertaken. The findings revealed that SMTs of impoverished schools exhibit consistently low to moderate instructional leadership competencies which ultimately affect student learning. In order to close the achievement gap in poor performing schools, SMTs should play a more pronounced instructional leadership role by leading and managing core curriculum matters and educational resources effectively and efficiently.     

Selling Schools: Marketing and Recruitment Strategies in New Orleans

Under new school-choice policies, schools feel increasing pressure to market their schools to parents and students. I examine how school leaders in New Orleans used different marketing strategies based on their positions in the market hierarchy and the ways in which they used formal and informal processes to recruit students. This study relied on qualitative interviews, observations of board meetings, and board-meeting minutes from a random sample of 30 schools in New Orleans. Findings indicate that marketing was a very common strategy. Yet even though choice policies were meant to give parents, not schools, power in selecting where their children attend school, some schools found ways to avoid enrolling disadvantaged students, often by not marketing. Faced with the pressure of accountability and charter renewal, these schools traded greater funding for potentially greater averages in student achievement. At the same time, some schools that were oversubscribed invested in marketing and recruitment anyway to draw less affluent parents to the school, who might not be aware of the open application and enrollment process. I discuss the implications of these marketing strategies.     

Perceptions and experiences of K-12 educational leaders in response to the 27 April 2011 tornadoes

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to capture first-hand accounts of K-12 educational leaders whose school districts were directly affected by the deadly 27 April 2011 tornadoes in rural Alabama, USA. This study was framed by the literature base of leadership; specifically crisis leadership and resilience theory. Findings are organised under the headings of crisis management, crisis leadership characteristics, post-crisis support and crisis preparation. In this study, educational leaders demonstrated resilience in the face of adversity and took decisive steps to rebuild not only their schools but also their communities as well. Additionally, leaders expressed the importance of sharing their stories with others so that the lessons they learned in response to the tornadoes would not soon be forgotten. The study concludes with reflections about crisis planning and implications for future research as well as a call to action to improve crisis management in K-12 educational settings.     

Some economic guidelines for design of a charter school district

As the number of charter schools has grown nationally, there is increasing discussion of the consolidation of such schools into charter districts in which all schools would be charter schools from which parents would have the freedom to choose the school that they wished their student to attend. A major question is how such a charter school district would be organized to support its schools and who would perform the different functions required. It is argued that three economic guidelines need to be an important determinant of the solution to this question: the presence of economies of scale; transaction costs; and externalities. The article describes the application of these guidelines to the formation of a charter school district and suggests the different possibilities for addressing a range of important roles by schools, their districts and intermediate organizations and markets.     

School innovation in district context: Comparing traditional public schools and charter schools

Market reforms in education are part of the educational policy landscape in many countries. Central to arguments for market reforms is the idea that competition and choice will spur changes in schools to be more innovative, which in turn will lead to better student outcomes. We define innovation in terms of a practice's relative prevalence in a local district context. A charter school is innovative in its use of a practice if the traditional public schools in its local school district are not using that practice. We explore factors based on arguments for charter schools that may affect a charter schools’ propensity toward innovation to explain variation in levels of innovation across charter schools. We find that, on the whole, charter schools do not fulfill their promise of innovation. Teacher tenure is the most notable exception. Parental involvement is the only characteristic of charter schools that significantly predicts variation in levels of organizational innovativeness.