Is Autonomy Just a Myth? A Charter Management Organization Case Study

• In Event: Charter School Growth and Management Issues

Abstract

This exploratory case study uses semi-structured interviews of seven past and present charter-high-school directors of a charter management organization (CMO) in the greater California Bay Area that presides over three charter high schools. I investigate leadership and autonomy of the directors, using an organizational theory on the relationship between nonprofit executives and their boards of directors as a lens. Findings suggest that the divergent goals of the individual charter schools—student achievement—and those of the managing organization—market share expansion—are the primary source of tension that has contributed to director turnover. The undermined autonomy of leadership implicates private bureaucracy as a limiting factor in charter schools where the elimination of public bureaucracy is understood as a primary justification for their existence.

Author

• Juddson R Taube, Stanford University