Abstract This study investigated perceptions of school work culture of instructional staff members (administrators and faculty) in public charter and public non-charter elementary schools in a large urban metropolitan county of Central Florida by assessing differences in perceptions of administrators and faculty related to school work culture, perceptions between school administrators and faculty, and the interaction between type of school. The School Work Culture Profile (SWCP), a paper-and-pencil survey, was designed in 1988 by Snyder to obtain a measure of a school's work culture. The SWCP uses a Likert scale to assess the overall perception and four sub-domains of planning, development, program development, school assessment, and staff development. One hundred sixty-one teachers and administrators from public charter and public non-charter elementary schools participated. Results of ANOVA tests indicated differences by job category: administrators scored significantly higher than faculty on the overall perception and three sub-domains of school work culture: planning development, program development, and school assessment. There was no difference on the staff development sub-domain. Administrators and faculty members do perceive certain aspects of school work culture differently. Program Development, Planning Development, and School Assessment are administrative functions, whereas Staff Development may be perceived to be more of a personal function. There was no difference between perceptions of instructional staff by type of school (public charter and public non-charter). In addition, there was no interaction between job category and school type. The perceptions of administrators and faculty members of both types of schools do not appear to be dependent upon whether or not they work in charter or non-charter public schools.

Charter schools experience elevated rates of teacher turnover compared to traditional public schools. As the charter school industry continues to expand its reach across the United States in the era of neoliberalism, it is important to gain a better understanding of why teachers leave these schools at such high rates. In this qualitative case study, I investigated teacher perceptions of the teaching experience, working conditions, and organizational culture in two types of charter schools (prestige and centrally managed) in an effort to gain a more nuanced perspective of the problem of teacher attrition across the charter sector. Prestige charter schools are an emerging type of freestanding/standalone charter school sought after by affluent families in gentrifying areas (see Brown & Makris, 2018), while centrally managed charter schools operate as part of a network of schools, also known as charter management organizations (CMOs). Taking an organizational theory perspective, this study explored the charter school teaching experience through the dual-lens of the Competing Values Framework (Cameron & Quinn, 2011; Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983) and Johnson's (2006) findings on the impact of supportive working conditions on teacher retention. The findings suggest that although prestige charter schools and CMO schools are characterized by distinctive organizational cultures, both cultures are influenced by neoliberal logic and market-based approaches to education that result in teacher dissatisfaction, increasing the likelihood of turnover. The findings imply that charter school teacher turnover may be reduced by increasing charter school teacher voice and empowerment through unionization, distributed leadership models, and/or the cultivation of intentionally collaborative school cultures. The study situates the findings within extant literature in the field and recommends future research.

This Brief reviews the past, present, and future use of school corporal punishment in the United States, a practice that remains legal in 19 states as it is constitutionally permitted according to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a result of school corporal punishment, nearly 200,000 children are paddled in schools each year. Most Americans are unaware of this fact or the physical injuries sustained by countless school children who are hit with objects by school personnel in the name of discipline. Therefore, Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools begins by summarizing the legal basis for school corporal punishment and trends in Americans’ attitudes about it. It then presents trends in the use of school corporal punishment in the United States over time to establish its past and current prevalence. It then discusses what is known about the effects of school corporal punishment on children, though with so little research on this topic, much of the relevant literature is focused on parents’ use of corporal punishment with their children. It also provides results from a policy analysis that examines the effect of state-level school corporal punishment bans on trends in juvenile crime. It concludes by discussing potential legal, policy, and advocacy avenues for abolition of school corporal punishment at the state and federal levels as well as summarizing how school corporal punishment is being used and what its potential implications are for thousands of individual students and for the society at large. As school corporal punishment becomes more and more regulated at the state level, Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools serves an essential guide for policymakers and advocates across the country as well as for researchers, scientist-practitioners, and graduate students.

Abstract: Research dedicated to understanding the effects of charter schools on student outcomes has yielded mixed results. Some findings indicate increased levels of student achievement in charter schools as compared with traditional public schools and some findings indicate lower levels of student achievement in charter schools as compared to traditional public schools. What is not known is teacher perceptions of cultural conditions in charter schools that could potentially influence student outcomes. This exploratory study compared teacher perceptions of collective faculty trust in the charter school where they are currently teaching and their perceptions of collective faculty trust based on previous teaching experience in traditional public schools. Paired samples t-tests were conducted to compare the means of each paired sample. Findings included statistical significance (2-tailed) at .000 for all four paired samples that were analyzed. These findings support the hypotheses that teachers who have taught in both charter schools and traditional public schools perceive higher overall collective faculty trust in charter schools and that perceptions of collective faculty trust of the principal, colleagues and clients is also higher in charter schools than in traditional public schools where they have taught. These findings may provide a foundation for further research investigating why some charter schools are successful and others are not. Additionally, the study may guide policy makers, law makers, and state department officials as they contemplate charter school expansion.

The purpose of this study was to compare differences in perceived levels of empowerment and six dimensions of empowerment between teachers who work in charter schools and non-charter schools in the states of Colorado and Michigan. Additionally, demographic information was collected for comparison purposes. Three hundred eighty seven teachers in 20 charter elementary schools and 17 non-charter, public elementary schools in the states of Colorado and Michigan were used in this study, grouped according to the type of school in which they were teaching: charter or non-charter. Teachers completed a demographic questionnaire and the School Participant Empowerment Scale (SPES) which measured six dimensions of empowerment: (1) decision making, (2) professional growth, (3) status, (4) self-efficacy, (5) autonomy, and (6) impact. The independent variables were charter and non-charter schools and the dependent variables were the six sub-scales of the SPES. Through a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and subsequent univariate analyses of variance (ANOVA), the following results were obtained: Non-charter teachers perceive themselves as being more empowered than charter school teachers. Furthermore, non-charter school teachers scored significantly higher on all of the SPES sub-scales except for the sub-scale which measured autonomy. Teachers in non-charter schools are older, have more teaching experience and have attained higher levels of education than charter school teachers have. This offers an explanation as to why the differences found were not what was expected. Younger, less experienced, less educated teachers, the kind of teachers that charter schools attract, are less likely to perceive that they have opportunities to make decisions. The lack of difference in autonomy for teachers in charter and non-charter schools may be explained by the fact that there really is no organizational difference between charter and non-charter schools. Teachers are still required to implement the visions and policies of their immediate superiors.