Chartering New Waters

Abstract

As the first mayor in the United States to possess independent charter school authorizing authority, Mayor Bart Peterson oversaw the establishment and expansion of Indianapolis’s ambitious charter school initiative. In 2007, Democratic Mayor Peterson’s oversight of the initiative came to an end when he was unexpectedly defeated by Republican Gregory Ballard in the mayoral election. Despite this significant change in leadership, the transition between mayors and political parties was accomplished with minimal disruption to the operation of the charter school office, as well as to the schools themselves. Through the use of in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, this study investigates how the transition between administrations was undertaken to ensure continuity for Indianapolis mayor-sponsored charter schools and offers best practices for mayoral transitions. In addition, this study reveals that to provide continuity for charter schools, policies that insulate schools from political change must be developed and charter schools must be viewed apolitically.

Keywords

charter schools organizational culture leadership transitions

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alvesson

(1990). On the popularity of organizational culture. Acta Sociologica, 33, 31-49.

Anderson

Finnegan

(2001, April). Charter school authorizers and charter school accountability. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Seattle, WA.

Aycan

Kanungo

R. N.

Sinha

J. B.

(1999). Organizational culture and human resource management practices: The model of culture fit. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 30, 501-526.

Briggs

(1999). Managing leadership transitions in education partnerships. Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED). (ERIC Document Number: ED444221)

Bulkley

(1999). Charter school authorizers: A new governance mechanism? Educational Policy, 13, 674-697.

Bulkley

Fisler

(2003). A decade of charter schools: From theory to practice. Educational Policy, 17, 317-342.

Center for Evaluation and Education Policy. (2009). 2008 public opinion survey on K-12 education in Indiana. Bloomington, IN: Author.

Center on Educational Governance. (2008). Harnessing resources through mayor-authorized charter schools (Promising Practice Profile). National Resource Center on Charter Schools Finance & Governance. Retrieved from http://www.usc.edu/dept/education/cegov/focus/charter-schools/publications/other/Mayor-Authorized_Charter_Schools.pdf

Dalkir

(2005). Knowledge management in theory and practice. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.

10.

Denison

D. R.

(1996). What is the difference between organizational culture and organizational climate? A native’s point of view on a decade of paradigm wars. The Academy of Management Review, 21, 619-654.

11.

Denison

D. R.

Mishra

(1995). Toward a theory of organizational culture and effectiveness. Organizational Science, 6, 204-223.

12.

Frost

P. J.

Moore

L. F.

Louis

M. R.

Lundberg

C. C.

Martin

(Eds.). (1991). Reframing organizational culture. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.

13.

Gau

(2006). Trends in charter school authorizing. Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

14.

Goldring

Crowson

Laird

Berk

(2003). Transition leadership in a shifting policy environment. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 25, 473-488.

15.

Goodyear

Golden

(2008). Leadership transitions: Keys for success. Educause Quarterly, 1, 52-55.

16.

Grey

J. H.

Densten

I. L.

(2005). Towards an integrative model of organizational culture and knowledge management. International Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 9, 594-603.

17.

Hallett

(2003). Symbolic power and organizational culture. Sociology Theory, 21, 128-149.

18.

Harris

S. G.

(1994). Organizational culture and individual sensemaking: A schema-based perspective. Organization Science, 5, 309-321.

19.

Hassel

B. C.

(2004). Fast break in Indianapolis: A new approach to charter schooling. Washington, DC: Progressive Policy Institute.

20.

Hatch

M. J.

(1993). The dynamics of organizational culture. The Academy of Management Review, 18, 657-693.

21.

Indiana Charter School Board. (n.d.-a). About us. Retrieved from http://www.in.gov/icsb/2389.htm

22.

Indiana Charter School Board. (n.d.-b). About us: Vision & mission. Retrieved from http://www.in.gov/icsb/2395.htm

23.

Indiana Code § 20-24-1-9, 2005.

24.

Jermier

J. M.

Slocum

J. W.

Fry

L. W.

Gaines

(1991). Organizational subcultures in a soft bureaucracy: Resistance behind the myth and façade of an official culture. Organizaitonal Science, 2, 170-194.

25.

Lewis

Bebbington

A. J.

Batterbury

S. P.

Shah

Olson

Siddiqi

M. S.

Duvall

(2003). Practice, power and meaning: Frameworks for studying organizational culture in multi-agency rural development projects. Journal of International Development, 15, 541-557.

26.

Lincoln

Guba

(1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverley Hills, CA: SAGE.

27.

Manderscheid

Ardichvili

(2008). A conceptual model for leadership transition. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 20, 113-129.

28.

Martin

(2004). Organizational culture (Research Paper No. 1847, Research Paper Series). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Graduate School of Business.

29.

McNeil

(2007, November 14). Indianapolis mayor, supporter of charters, loses race. Education Week, p. 8.

30.

Meek

(1988). Organizational culture: Origins and weaknesses. Organization Studies, 9, 453-473.

31.

National Association of Charter School Authorizers. (2012). The state of charter school authorizing 2011: Fourth annual report on NACSA’s authorizer survey. Chicago, IL: National Association of Charter School Authorizers.

32.

Office of the Mayor, City of Indianapolis. (2007). Accountability report on mayor-sponsored charter schools: Fall 2007. Retrieved from http://www.indy.gov/eGov/Mayor/programs/education/Charter/Documents/PDF/Accountability%20Report%20USE.pdf

33.

Office of the Mayor, City of Indianapolis. (2009a). Education.Innovation.Results: Indianapolis mayor-sponsored charter schools 2007-2008 accountability report. Retrieved from http://www.indy.gov/OEI/Accountability/2008/Documents/Indianapolis%20Charter%20Schools%20Report%20(updated%20Christel%20House).pdf

34.

Office of the Mayor, City of Indianapolis. (2009b). Indianapolis charter schools board. Retrieved from http://oei.indy.gov/?page_id=1028

35.

Office of the Mayor, City of Indianapolis. (2010). A new school of thought: 2008-2009 accountability report. Indianapolis, IN: Mayor’s Office. Retrieved from http://www.indy.gov/OEI/Accountability/2009/Documents/08-09%20Executive%20Summary%20Web.pdf

36.

Patton

M. Q.

(1980). Qualitative evaluation methods. Beverley Hills, CA: SAGE.

37.

Ritchie

Lewis

(Ed.). (2003). Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science students and researchers. Beverley Hills, CA: SAGE.

38.

Schein

E. H.

(1992). Organizational culture and leadership (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

39.

Schein

E. H.

(2010). Organizational culture and leadership (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

40.

Silvester

Anderson

N. R.

Patterson

(1999). Organizational culture change: An inter-group attributional analysis. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 72, 1-23.

41.

Skinner

(2007). Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson: The Peyton Manning of charter schools. Education Next, 7(3), 33-39. Retrieved from http://educationnext.org/indianapolis-mayor-bart-peterson/

42.

Tierney

(1988). Organizational culture in higher education: Defining the essentials. The Journal of Higher Education, 59, 2-21.

43.

United States Department of Education. (2007). Supporting charter school excellence through quality authorizing. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education.

44.

Williams

(2009). Leadership at the Top: Some insights from a longitudinal case study of a UK business school. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 37, 128-146.

45.

Yin

R. K.

(2008). Case study research: Design and methods. Beverley Hills, CA: SAGE.