Allowing Education Entrepreneurs to Flourish: How Do We Unlock Schools to Innovate?

Abstract

If we want our students to be competitive internationally and to be better prepared for our evolving workforce, our leaders must support the identification, development, and implementation of innovative instructional models. This qualitative study used two sets of interviews to learn from school district principals, independent charter school principals, and charter management organization principals. At its most basic level, this study was designed to answer two questions that have been at the foundation of many school reform efforts. The first question was whether there are differences in principals’ perceptions of autonomy and self-efficacy between principals leading school district schools, independent charter schools, and charter schools within a charter management organization. The second question was whether principals with more autonomy used that autonomy to support school-based innovations. There were four themes that were identified from the two rounds of interviews: (1) principals within the school district and principals within charter management organizations described similar perceptions of autonomy; (2) principals, while lacking instructional autonomies, frequently seek more operational autonomies; (3) principals are typically not focused on innovation; and (4) principals who were focused on innovation described not having the autonomy to be innovative.