Date of Award

9-5-2013

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Sharon Byrd Collins

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of Arkansas and Louisiana district conversion and open-enrollment charter school principals' background characteristics, leadership skills, and school success. A quantitative methodology was used to test the research questions prescribed in the study. Data was collected using a survey. The study included charter school principals located in Arkansas and Louisiana during the 2011-2012 school year. The charter school principals' schools performance was based on Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) results for the 2011-2012 school year. The study aimed to identify the leadership skills of charter school principals that are essential to school success. School success of district conversion and open-enrollment charter schools were compared to understand the differences in AYP and adequacy of training. There were differences found between district conversion and open-enrollment charter school principals' background characteristics and leadership skills. The differences found in the study indicated that the training of district conversion charter school principals was different than open-enrollment charter school principals. The differences clearly distinguished between the attributes of the two groups (district conversion and open-enrollment). There were no differences found between the distribution of AYP statuses for district conversion and open-enrollment charter schools. In the study, a higher percentage of charter schools did not make AYP. Over 58% of the charter schools in this study did not make AYP. Since differences were found between district conversion and open-enrollment charter school principals' background characteristics and leadership skills, but there were no differences found between district conversion and open-enrollment charter school principals' school performance results based on AYP status, it was concluded that the differences in background characteristics and leadership skills were insignificant when examining charter school success. The differences in background characteristics and leadership skills did not impact AYP positively or negatively. In fact, a higher number of charter schools did not make AYP, which supported the conclusion that district conversion and open-enrollment charter school principals both lack adequate training to successfully lead charter schools. Therefore, district conversion and open-enrollment charter school principals need school leadership training specifically designed for charter school principals.

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