A study to explore perceptions of public school superintendents in Michigan regarding charter schools

This study investigated the perceptions of public school superintendents in the State of Michigan regarding charter schools. Superintendents in 524 school districts were asked to respond to an original two-part survey developed by the researcher about charter schools. The first part of the survey consisted of 5 sections that measured perceptions in specific areas of charter schools including: personal reactions to charter schools, intent of charter school legislation, reasons for implementing charter schools in their district, reasons for not implementing charter schools in their districts, and effects of charter school in their districts. The second part was a short demographic survey. A voluntary, unprompted response comments section followed part one of the survey to allow superintendents the opportunity to add his/her thoughts regarding charter schools.;Superintendents were generally negative on their responses to all five areas on the survey. These negative responses were supported by their unprompted, voluntary responses on the Comments section of the survey.;Three research questions were posed for this study. The findings indicated the superintendents were significantly below the neutral point on four of the five subscales. No significant differences in the perceptions of charter schools were found between superintendents who had charter schools either operating or in planning stages and those superintendents without plans to have a charter school in their district. Significant relationships were found between part one, superintendents' personal reactions to charter schools, and part two superintendents' self-rated knowledge of charter schools and knowledge of PA 362.