Abstract
This study was a replication of two earlier studies looking at intrapreneurship in California Distinguished elementary and high schools. This study completed the data on intrapreneurship by doing a similar study at the middle school level. It also combined and statistically analyzed the data of all three studies to determine the effectiveness of intrapreneurship on a K-12 continuum. The study examined (1) the degree to which each of the intrapreneurial climate factors and phases was evident in distinguished middle schools and in comparison schools, (2) the difference between those groups, (3) the findings of the middle school study with the findings of the elementary and high school studies to determine the degree to which each intrapreneurial climate factor and phase is evident in distinguished schools K-12. Descriptive and ex post facto research were used. Seventy-one 1996 California Distinguished Middle Schools and an equal-sized random sample of all other California middle schools were included in the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test for independent samples, one-way analysis of variance, and Duncan Multiple Range Test. In addition, a metanalysis was used to analyze data from the three levels of schools to determine the effect size of each intrapreneurial climate factor and phase. Principals from distinguished middle schools rated their schools as demonstrating a higher incidence of intrapreneurial climate factors than did principals of comparison schools. When analyzing data from all three levels of schools (K-12), principals from distinguished elementary, middle, and high schools rated their schools as demonstrating a higher incidence of intrapreneurial climate factors than did principals of comparison schools. All three phases of intrapreneurship were found to be significantly more present in distinguished elementary, middle and high schools than in comparison schools. A metanalysis procedure was applied to achieve a combined effect size for each of the twenty-seven climate factors and phases of intrapreneurship. In each of the twenty-seven climate factors, there was a moderate-to-substantial combined effect size for distinguished schools compared to non-distinguished schools, indicating that all twenty-seven factors of intrapreneurship have a positive impact on building an intrapreneurial climate in schools, K-12. All three phases of intrapreneurship were found to have an effect size substantially higher in distinguished schools than in comparison schools. By conducting research on California distinguished middle schools, this study unequivocally establishes the power ofintrapreneurship to re-invent the public school system across all three grade levels; elementary, middle and high school. In doing so, it validates and completes the work of two earlier studies done on intrapreneurship at the elementary and secondary levels.