Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to compare principals' perceptions and examine the significant differences between principals of high-performing middle schools and low-performing middle schools regarding the degree to which their school had developed a learning organization based on Senge's five disciplines for a learning organization. Methodology. Research methodologies used in this study to describe and compare the perceptions of middle schools principals were descriptive and ex post facto. The Learning Organization Survey was sent to 150 middle school principals. These principals were randomly selected based on their school's California similar schools ranking. Seventy-five schools were chosen with a ranking of 1 or 2, while seventy-five schools were selected based on their ranking as a 9 or 10. The forty-item survey asked principals to rank their schools using a five-point Likert scale as to the degree they felt their schools had developed the individual characteristics of a learning community. Findings. Review of the descriptive data for research questions 1 and 2 showed frequency responses for individual survey items relating to one or more of Peter Senge's five disciplines for a learning community. The data also showed the total mean response for each of the five rankings for high-performing and low-performing schools for each of the disciplines. Eleven of the survey items of the forty-item Learning Organization Survey revealed a significant difference at the .05 level, while the other twenty-nine survey items failed to show a significant difference between the principals' perceptions. This study was compared to two other studies conducted in elementary schools and high schools. These findings were previously reported in Ellen Dougherty's dissertation on "Learning Communities and Elementary Schools" and Jim Stier's dissertation on "Learning Communities and High Schools." Conclusions. Although only eleven individual survey items revealed a significant difference at the .05 level, favoring high-performing schools, the overall means for each discipline between high-performing schools and low-performing schools showed a significant difference at the .05 level.