| 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 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 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 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.;Keywords: charter schools, state ratings, educator's perceptions. . |
