THE IMPACT OF A SCHOOL’S ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH ON

The purpose of this study was to compare the achievement of twenty-five campuses as measured by their reading and math performance and state accountability ratings, to the outcomes the schools achieved from the administration of the Organizational Health Inventory. The literature review examined a historical perspective of school reform, high stakes testing, school culture and climate, and the importance of leadership in schools. The study was conducted in a fast growing urban school district of over 100,000 students located in the Gulf Coast area of Texas. The population of the study consisted of the personnel in twenty-five schools trained in Fairman’s Organizational Health model. Sample schools were assigned an accountability rating based on student performance, measured using the state achievement test mandated by the Texas Education Agency. Standard scores for each of the ten dimensions were derived from the administration of the OHI at each of the 25 campuses and were compared with the accountability rating of each school using a one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). In nine of the ten dimensions of Organizational Health, statistical significance was not found at a p < .05 alpha showing there was not variance between the Organizational Health campuses. The Cohesiveness dimension was the only dimension in this study to show a statistical significance at p < .05. The means of each of the ten dimensions were then compared between the Recognized and Exemplary campuses. In every dimension, the mean of the Recognized campuses was lower than the mean of the Exemplary campuses. This demonstrates a positive trend indicating organizational health impacts student achievement. By comparing the differences in means, the top four dimensions having the greatest variance are Cohesiveness, Adaptation, Goal Focus, and Communication. The Autonomy dimension is fifth by a small margin. All twenty-five campuses had high performance ratings on TAKS in 2010 so to answer the research question: “Is there a correlation between Organizational Health, and their achievement based on the TAKS assessment in reading and math,” a Pearson Correlation was done. The Pearson Correlation was statistically significant at .049, with a probability of (p < .05) on the Autonomy dimension of OHI and Reading.Educational Leadership and Cultural Studies, Department o