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.

Moving beyond the debate over whether or not charter schools should exist, A Smarter Charter wrestles with the question of what kind of charter schools we should encourage. The authors begin by tracing the evolution of charter schools from Albert Shanker's original vision of giving teachers room to innovate while educating a diverse population of students, to today's charter schools where student segregation levels are even higher than in traditional public schools. In the second half of the book, the authors examine two key reforms currently seen in a small but growing number of charter schools, socioeconomic integration and teacher voice, that have the potential to improve performance and reshape the stereotypical image of what it means to be a charter school.

The culmination of nearly three decades of research, Collective Trust offers new insight and practical knowledge on the social construction of trust for school improvement. The authors argue that collective trust is not merely an average trust score for a group, but rather an independent concept with distinctive origins and consequences. The book demonstrates that schools are organizations that require environments characterized by high levels of collective trust to be effective. Including an historical overview, an exhaustive review of the empirical research, and implications for school reform policy and leadership, this is the most comprehensive resource to date on the issue of collective trust.

Many charter schools in Texas continue to struggle in meeting state standards of academically acceptable ratings. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) reported that from 2009 to 2011, charter schools in Texas were rated academically unacceptable, significantly more than traditional public schools. The purpose of this qualitative study less funding and generally have poor facilities. This group also revealed some common perspectives in regard to how difficult it is to put together and uphold a charter, but on the was to explore teacher and administrator perceptions regarding the factors that influenced student success in five Texas charter schools. Interviews were conducted with 10 teachers and seven administrators who were employed in charter schools, but also had experience working in traditional public schools. Archival data revealed that these five Texas charter schools consistently underperformed when compared to their public school counterparts. These statistics revealed that, as of 2010, more inexperienced teachers worked at charter schools than at traditional public schools, and charter schools had higher levels of teacher turnover than teachers in traditional public schools. Teachers ranked classroom management as the most important factor, followed closely by teacher tenure. Administrators ranked classroom management as the most important factor, followed by salary problems. Data were analyzed by sorting, coding, and labeling categorically. The interview data revealed differential perceptions between the teachers and the administrators in regard to teacher tenure and other factors as they related to student educational outcome. The interviews revealed that charter schools are often specialized nature in the way that they are accountable to educational agencies such as the Texas Education Agency for the same expectations as the traditional public schools, but with other hand, charter schools are innovative in ways that traditional schools are not. This study also synthesized the people as the heart of charter schools who work with the most challenging kids and in the most challenging conditions, but with big hearts for the kids.

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.

Most Americans agree on the necessity of education reform, but there is little consensus about how this goal might be achieved. The rhetoric of standards and vouchers has occupied center stage, polarizing public opinion and affording little room for reflection on the intangible conditions that make for good schools. Trust in Schools engages this debate with a compelling examination of the importance of social relationships in the successful implementation of school reform. Over the course of three years, Bryk and Schneider, together with a diverse team of other researchers and school practitioners, studied reform in twelve Chicago elementary schools. Each school was undergoing extensive reorganization in response to the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988, which called for greater involvement of parents and local community leaders in their neighborhood schools. Drawing on years longitudinal survey and achievement data, as well as in-depth interviews with principals, teachers, parents, and local community leaders, the authors develop a thorough account of how effective social relationships—which they term relational trust—can serve as a prime resource for school improvement. Using case studies of the network of relationships that make up the school community, Bryk and Schneider examine how the myriad social exchanges that make up daily life in a school community generate, or fail to generate, a successful educational environment. The personal dynamics among teachers, students, and their parents, for example, influence whether students regularly attend school and sustain their efforts in the difficult task of learning. In schools characterized by high relational trust, educators were more likely to experiment with new practices and work together with parents to advance improvements. As a result, these schools were also more likely to demonstrate marked gains in student learning. In contrast, schools with weak trust relations saw virtually no improvement in their reading or mathematics scores. Trust in Schools demonstrates convincingly that the quality of social relationships operating in and around schools is central to their functioning, and strongly predicts positive student outcomes. This book offer insights into how trust can be built and sustained in school communities, and identifies some features of public school systems that can impede such development. Bryk and Schneider show how a broad base of trust across a school community can provide a critical resource as education professional and parents embark on major school reforms. A Volume in the American Sociological Association's Rose Series in Sociology

Accountability has placed immense pressure on principals leading K-12 public charter schools to increase standards for success. Overwhelmingly, principals accept the charge to produce promising results every day, despite the public scrutiny principals may ensue for not meeting the state’s standard of excellence. Principals are expected to drive high academic standards, initiate instructional vision, interact with parents, oversee policy mandates, address students’ needs, and foster relationships with teachers. The daily demands requiring principals’ attention stimulate stress and may cause principals to wrestle with prioritizing trusted relationships. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to understand how principals foster relational trust with teachers in an urban Title I public charter school in Texas. Thirteen principals participated in semistructured interviews. Principals provided an operating mechanism chart and core calendar to triangulate the development of trust with teachers. The findings of this study show that when principals identified a personal or professional experience that drove their mission, incorporated the organization’s goals to direct their daily priorities, and built interactions with teachers using operating mechanisms, they increased trusted relationships with teachers. In addition, as a result of the systems principals designed, principals perceived accountability stimulated teachers to actively invest in the mission of the school, establish stronger relationships between managers and direct employees, and enhance teacher relationships by making it a normal practice to celebrate and reward teachers for their commitment to the mission. Keywords: accountability, public charter school, principal pressure, trust, relational trust, school culture, leader-member exchange, systems thinking, and systems design