Charter School Governance: An Exploration of Autonomy and Board Effectiveness

Despite the increased numbers of charter schools each year, we understand very little about their governing boards. According to the Georgia Public Policy Foundation (2004) factors that correlate with charter school success such as accountability, public support, and institutional capacity to progress toward established goals are typically under the management of a charter school governing board. While there is no shortage of governance recommendations for charter schools, there are few empirically validated prescriptions. There are empirically validated characteristics of successful Non-Profit Organization (NPO) governing boards (Herman & Renz, 2008). The methodology for this research was designed to determine if governance practices of successful NPO governing boards impact charter school outcomes. A charter school’s governing board has tremendous power. A governing board can help optimize the educational outcomes of the school it serves. The theoretical framework that supports this research involves institutional theory; schools are open systems. Schools are impacted by external factors that may advance or challenge institutional goals. The Board Effectiveness Quick Check is a valid and reliable governance survey that can provide a small non-profit governing board with information about their quality of governance, areas of strength, and areas in need of improvement. This study analyzed the relationship between charter school governance and student progress on the Board Effectiveness Quick Check scores between two groups of schools: schools whose student growth exceeds the district average and schools whose student growth falls below the district average. The results from this study provide evidence that there is a correlation and a moderate effect size between governance practices and student academic growth