Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this case study was to describe variables that contributed to the success or lack of success of charter schools, noting the organization, collaboration, empowerment, flexibility, high expectations, professional development training, shared vision, and use of budgeting. Methods. This was an exploratory study, and a descriptive research methodology was used to identify the variables in this study. Findings. The results revealed that the successful charter schools, with an Academic Performance Index (API) score of 600 or more, had a collaboration score of 7.8, which was the largest attribute to their success. This was the highest score that was recorded from the 10 schools examined with regard to collaboration. The results also revealed that the collaboration variable created a sense of positive experiences among the school stakeholders. Conclusions. The conclusion was drawn from the data that focus groups proved to be unreliable due to the "true believer mindset." The true believer mindset is where all stakeholders believe the school is great and give all responses high marks. This type of result tends to happen when focus groups are conducted to gain feedback and information about an organization. Recommendations. Charter school stakeholders should focus on collaboration, empowerment, and money to become successful. Charter schools need to find effective, nonthreatening ways to get honest feedback from the stakeholders in the organization. A larger sample should be examined, as the sample size for this study was small. The implications from this study could also include a closer examination of collaboration and test scores to see how collaboration would influence the results of students' test scores. The study also has implications for the variable of empowerment, which could be examined from the student's point of view and how it relates to the test scores. Getting a charter to show improvement is the ultimate goal of all charter school administrators. This study has implications for charter school administrators to look at each of these variables and examine the results of this study to see which variables in which combination can help their school improve.