Organizational vision analysis and strategic implementation

organizational vision analysis: doctor of organizational leadership most appropriate for leader-Practitioners and those who intend to become leaders in the future in educational institutions

The objective of this work is to research Charter Schools in what is a politically correct and pro-view and in support of the view that a Doctor of Organization Leadership attainment is the most appropriate level of education for the leader-practitioner and others in these educational institutions intending to become leaders in the near future of education. One method for strengthening essential leadership skills of critical analysis and assessment is to look at the organization's congruence between its visions and its actions and that is what will be undertaken in this work in writing.

INTRODUCTION to STUDY

The work of Elmore (2000) states that there is a problem in today's educational system and states that there is a conundrum: Few visionary leaders have had any effect on the dominant institutional patterns of American education. Schools are being asked by elected officials - policy leaders, if you will - to do things they are largely unequipped to do. School leaders are being asked to assume responsibilities they are largely unequipped to assume, and the risks and consequences of failure are high for everyone, but especially high for children." (Elmore, 2000) Visionary leadership requires a firm base from which to arise and proper education and training are primary requirements for those in the role of leadership of educational organizations. If today's educational leaders are not fully educated as such specifically at the level of attainment of Doctoral of Organizational Leadership then these individuals have as stated by Elmore will have undertaken a task which they are unequal to and thus doomed to certain failure. Charter Schools have created a factor in view of public education that has intimidated public education to the extent that great negativity has been postured by many leaders in education. There is a requirement for reassessment of public education values as compared to the stated standards and outcomes because a lack of congruity exists between the state vision and values of the educational institutional due to a lack of 'vision' by the individual in the leadership role of the school. Market competition is a good and healthy experience for all organizations as competitive drives the race toward excellence both in terms of leadership and in terms of the quality of the educational provision and outcomes.

I. ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE (VISION, MISSION, GOALS and STRUCTURE)

The work of Cheung (1999) reports a national review of charter school governance in a study that gathered data from 30 charter schools in nine states to attempt to discover key elements of..."successful structure that were common with thriving schools as evidence by standardized tests and other forms of assessment." Findings state the following traits:

1) Governance structure reflected that of the school's mission, goals, and objectives;

2) Used some form of shared decision-making;

3) Produced documents explaining which decisions are made by whom (i.e., governing board, administrator, and committee);

4) Involved a variety of people in the governing board and in the committees;

5) Employed board training seminars, and/or retreats; and 6) Had a relatively simple organization, without multiple levels of bureaucracy. (NWREL, 1999)

The following is an example of the Charter School vision, mission, goals, and structure:

1) VISION- the organizational vision of the Charter school is to provide a choice in education for students in order to increase the student's potential for increased academic achievement and to do so though provision of an innovative and creative curriculum, teaching methods, and classroom learning environments.

2) MISSION - the mission of the Charter School is to enhance the educational possibilities for general population students and to maximize the potential for increased academic achievement among students.

3) GOALS - the goals of the Charter School is to provide a choice in education opportunity for students, to creatively and innovatively instruct students in an environment that is conducive to learning and developing life-long learning skills in students attending the school while raising levels of academic achievement.

4) STRUCTURE - the structure of the Charter school is one in which the model of governance is a 'school committee' with management responsibilities being delegated to several members of the school committee and decisions being reached through a consensus. In this form of school governance parents and teachers are the dominant forces with committee members being elected to serve on the school board committee.

Advantages of this type structure include:

1) more collaboration; and 2) peer-based decision-making.

Disadvantages of this type structure include:

1) unclear leadership; and 2) Time-consuming form of governance. (Greene, Forster, and Winters, 2003)

The following three governance models are identified by Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in 1999 as the models utilized by most governing school boards. The work of Finn and Vanourek relates: "Chartering incorporates a theory of organizational change in public education, too: that creating sound school choices will improve educational quality in two ways: 1) by supplying immediate alternatives to students who are not thriving in their present schools, and 2) by exerting competitive pressure on the system to improve while providing it with innovative examples of schools that work."

Types of Models of Governance, Decision-making, Committee Role, Membership Traits, and Advantages/Disadvantages of Each

Source: NWREL (1999)

II. ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL and LEADERSHIP of the CHARTER SCHOOL

The work entitled: "Building a New Structure for School Leadership" states that the most efficient manner in allocation of resources is to form publicly supported schools that operate under independent charters." (Elmore, 2000) Because the school systems have in relation to their "existing superstructure of local administration and governance in education becomes increasingly weak, unstable and irrelevant to many educators and their clients." (Elmore, 2000)the Charter school structure is one in which the many complex tasks of leadership responsibly are distributed widely among various organizational roles. Distributed leadership "means multiple sources of guidance and direction, following the contours of expertise in an organization, made coherent through a common culture." (Elmore, 2000) the Charter School is not allowed to charge tuition and must be nonsectarian in nature. Charter schools are subject to laws both federal and state which prohibits discrimination and Charter schools are required to comply with laws relating to safety and health.

Powers which states grant to Charter schools include power to:

1) Negotiate and contract for services;

2) Acquire real property;

3) Receive and disburse funds;

4) Incur temporary debt;

5) Operate as a business or corporation; and 6) Adopt a name and a corporate seal. (the Charter School Roadmap, 1998)

Charter schools are public schools that have obtained exemption from the various regulations of procedure applicable to regular public schools. Greene, Forster, and Winters (2003) in the work entitled: "Apples to Apples: An Evaluation of Charter Schools Serving General Student Populations" states that Charter Schools are: "...are public schools that operate outside the normal bureaucratic and regulatory school system. They are created by special agreement between the school itself and an authorizing agency. State laws differ regarding what institutions can authorize charter schools; in some states only local school boards can do so, while in other states the state department of education or state universities can also serve as authorizing agencies. In all states with charter school laws, however, the agreement between the school and the authorizer, called the school's "charter," lays out the terms by which the school is to be run. Charter schools are schools of choice; students may choose to go to a charter school instead of the regular public school to which they are assigned." (Green, Forster, and Winters, 2003) to this end a comparison between charter schools and populations that serve general students populations is an approach that is fair and that found that "untargeted charter schools (those that serve general student populations) perform moderately better than neighboring regular public schools." (Green, Forster, and Winters, 2003) in fact, the overall national analysis states findings that "over a one-year time period untargeted charter schools outperformed nearby public schools on math tests" at the equivalent of a benefit of 3 percentile points for a student starting at the 50th percentile." (Green, Forster, and Winters, 2003) Additionally, findings stated that untargeted charter schools "outperformed nearby public schools on reading tests...equal to a benefit of 2 percentile points from the 50th percentile." (Green, Forster, and Winters, 2003) These results in both cases are stated to be "statistically significant at a high level." (Green, Forster, and Winters, 2003)

III. ANALYSIS of CHARTER SCHOOL ACTIONS COMPARED to VISION

The work of Greene, Forster and Winters relates that assessment of Charter school student academic performance is problematic because "many Charter schools serve specifically targeted populations such as at-risk students, disabled students and juvenile delinquents. This makes it very difficult for researchers to draw a fair comparison between charter schools and regular public schools; simply comparing the performance of regular public school students to the performance of charter school students is like comparing apples and zebras. As a result, there are very few reliable research findings on the academic quality of charter schools as compared to regular public schools." (2003)

IV. VISION and PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

Greene, Forster, and Winters (2003) report that charter schools typically serve disadvantaged populations. "The targeting of charter schools to disadvantaged populations I so common that many people have come to believe, incorrectly, that all charter schools serve disadvantaged students." (2003) One reason for this is that the "procedures by which new charter schools are created often encourage such targeting." (Greene, Forster, and Winters, 2003) Greene, Forster, and Winters reports case studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, one of which included 91 schools and states conclusions that "charter schools are held accountable for their performance...resource limitations are the biggest obstacles facing charter schools." (2003) in another study involving 150 schools and 60 authorizing agencies the U.S. Department of Education states findings that: "...charters learn quickly the best way to satisfy their various constituents is to focus on quality instruction." (Greene, Forster, and Winters, 2003) Findings also include the fact that "new types of charter authorizers learn more quickly than do local school districts to break habits of accountability based on process compliance rather than on performance and outcomes." (Greene, Forster, and Winters, 2003) Green, Forster, and Winters state conclusion in a study of charter schools in eleven states including those of Arizona, California, Florida, Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Colorado, North Carolina, Minnesota and Pennsylvania, state findings that "very large variations from state to state existing targeting charter schools." The results "showed a positive effect from charter schools" (Greene, Forster, and Winters, 2003) of a statistically significant nature. Charter schools are found to have positive effects on test scores. The work of Finn and Vanourek (2005) entitled: "Lessons from the U.S. Experience with Charter Schools" states: "Public charter schools offer today's most dramatic example of mobilizing the private sector on behalf of public education in the United States. The charter movement is a dynamic example of how an essential government function that has been recycled with few fundamental changes for well over a century can be reconceived to accommodate entrepreneurial initiative, private-sector investment, competitive forces, the profit motive, performance contracting, franchising, and more -- all within the context of public funding, standards, and oversight." (Finn and Vanourek, 2005) the ten components of Charter Schools include those as follows: (1) Site-based governance; (2) Deregulation; (3) Entrepreneurial talent; (4) Experimentation; (5) Choice; (6) competition; (7) evaluation; (8) accountability; (9) Deployment; and (10) renewal. (Finn and Vanourek,

Academic performance of charter schools is assessed and reported by Hassell (2005) reporting a meta-analysis of 44 major studies, released which is stated to draw conclusions which state that in terms of the diversity of outcomes that results vary widely from school to school with "...some charters at the top in their communities, others at the bottom, and many in the middle. Of the 26 studies seeking to appraise changes in student performance over time...12 found charters with larger overall gains than district schools, four found larger gains in certain categories, and six found comparable gains. Most studies indicate that charter school's performance improves over time." (Finn and Vanourek, 2005) Other accomplishments of charter schools include seven significant accomplishments as follows: (1) Providing new opportunities for struggling students; (2) Creating high levels of parent involvement and community support; (3) Fostering educational innovation; (4) encouraging entrepreneurialism; (5) Leveraging private capital; (6) Boosting efficiency; and (7) Deploying Market forces. (Finn and Vanourek, 2005)

V. SOLUTIONS for IMPROVEMENT