Instructional leadership and the charter school principal

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Principalship
• organisational theory
• qualitative methods
• instructional leadership
• curriculum
• charter schools

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Although the term ‘charter school’ is often used generically to refer to all schools that have established a contractual relationship with a school district, state, college, or university, not all charter schools are the same. There are two main types of charter schools: conversion and start-up charter schools. A conversion charter is a school that was originally a regular public or private school but opted to convert (or change) to a charter school. A start-up charter is a school that was initially established as a charter school. Over 650 public charter schools in Florida serve more than 150,000 students (Center for Education Reform 2015). The majority of Florida's charter schools are freestanding (managed by individual members or organisations within the community). Within the state, only 3.1 % (18) of all charter schools are conversion charters, while 96.9 % (558) are start-up charter schools (National Alliance for Public Charter Schools 2013). Nationally, 10.6 % (639) of all charter schools are conversion charter schools, while the majority (89.4 % [5,364]) are start-up charter schools (National Alliance for Public Charter Schools 2013).

2 Pseudonyms are used for the county, each focal school, and each principal.

3 Public schools in Florida are graded annually based on student performance on state assessments and the percentage of students making learning gains. Schools are assigned a letter grade (A through F) corresponding with their rated performance, with ‘A’ representing the highest performance rating and ‘F’ representing a failing grade.

4 For example, while the smallest charter school, Nettletree, had the highest level of academic performance in this initial exploration, the data cannot be used to determine the extent to which enrolment size affects school performance.