Comparative organization and structure of charter and traditional high schools

Although little has changed in high school design since the industrial era, there has been a great deal of research on what makes an effective school. When California passed the charter school law in 1992, opportunities were created to redesign the high school model. This study looks at the relationship between school design and school effectiveness in the high school setting. As the researcher, I was particularly interested in discovering ways that school design affects student outcomes and the different approaches that charter schools and district schools take.; Combining three bodies of literature, resiliency, effective schools, and organizational structures, the researcher employed a case study approach utilizing a grounded theory methodology to collect data on four high schools: two small charter and two district run, comprehensive schools. The researcher analyzed the data with a critical incident technique uncovering school design elements that relate to the success of two effective charter high schools, with graduation rates of 85% for schools with 90% low-income, Latino populations. Similar design elements were identified in the district schools, but at varying levels, and all schools differed in the implementation of key design concepts.; The researcher created a matrix for data analysis, which took the proven effective school elements in Lezotte's (1991) "correlates of effective schools" and organized them according to the different frames by which problems or challenges can be assessed, using Bolman and Deal's (1987) data analysis four-frame (structural, human resource, political, and symbolic) model. By using the matrix created to analyze the data the researcher discovered multiple effective leadership approaches for school leaders along with an amendment to Lezotte's effective schools correlates that should be considered in the development of new schools.