La “Niña” Su historia

This concluding chapter incorporates and contextualizes the research and literature presented in the preceding chapters by summarizing the purpose of this study, discussing the findings of the research, exploring the implications of these findings, and offering recommendations for future research on education marketing and school websites.

Summary of Study

As detailed previously, the rapid emergence and establishment of the charter school movement in the American education system has fostered heightened, direct competition between public schools and charter schools for the enrollment of students and for the accompanying financial resources allotted for each enrollment. One

intended outcome of the policies fostering school choice and competition is that leaders and faculties of public schools and charter schools will be obligated to demonstrate to stakeholders, particularly the families of prospective and current students, that their schools are the best choices for achieving the unique educational goals of individual students as well as their communities at-large (Kasman & Loeb, 2013; Jabbar, 2015; Jabbar, 2016; Foskett, 2012; Wilson & Carlsen, 2016). Student recruitment has always been an essential challenge for most charter school leaders who do not benefit from any guaranteed student enrollment and are thus dependent on attracting and retaining sufficient student enrollment each year to either achieve growth or, at a minimum, remain in operation (Lubienski, Linick, & York, 2012). For leaders of public schools that

historically have been provided annual student enrollments from legislated districts, however, the necessity to compete for and retain students is a relatively new and unfamiliar mandate (Beal & Beal, 2016).

An emerging body of literature reveals that only a minority of public school and charter school leaders are attempting to win student enrollment by pursuing specific academic, curriculum, or operating initiatives that are recommended for or are desired by current and prospective stakeholders (Beal & Beal, 2016; Jabbar, 2016; Kasman & Loeb, 2013). Instead, the existing research shows that a majority of charter school leaders, and an increasing number of public school leaders, are seeking to attract and retain student enrollment by adapting traditional marketing strategies and practices that are already utilized in higher education and private education to promote the existing programs, missions, values, achievements, and benefits of individual schools to current and prospective students, families, faculty members, and other community stakeholders (Beal & Beal, 2016; Cucchiara, 2016; DiMartino & Jessen, 2014; Jabbar, 2015; Jabbar, 2016; Kasman & Loeb, 2013; Loeb, Valant, & Kasman, 2011; Lubienski, Linick, & York, 2012; Tubin, 2012). Despite this growing acceptance and use of marketing practices as a leadership response to the increasingly competitive

marketplace of school choice, the research on education marketing, while considered a burgeoning field of academic study, remains “extremely limited in its quantity,

methodology, location, aims, and topics” (Oplatka & Hemsley-Brown, 2012, p. 22). This study contributes to the limited existing scholarship on education marketing by examining the extent to which public school leaders, in comparison to charter school leaders, are leveraging their school websites not just as operational hubs

for current stakeholders but also as marketing platforms that promote the unique and positive attributes and outcomes of their schools to prospective students and their families. School websites, highly valued as a marketing tool by leaders of American universities and colleges, are considered the “most widely available means that schools can use to promote themselves, with more schools using the web than any other form of public engagement” (Lubineski, Linick, & York, 2012, p. 121). Yet, despite the perceived value of the school website as a marketing mechanism by university, college, and

private school leaders, and although all public schools and charter schools operate or are expected to offer a school website, the study of the purposes and outcomes of school websites, like the study of education marketing in general, is both minimal and under- developed (Friedman, Hartshorne, & Algozzine, 2005; Hartshorne, Friedman, Agozzine, & Kaur, 2008; Taddeo & Barnes, 2016).

This study’s comparative analysis of the operational and marketing resources offered on public school and charter school websites is both normative and empirical in purpose. As Oplatka and Hemsley-Brown detailed in the ‘Future Directions’ section of their 2012 seminal literature review of education marketing studies, the nascent field of education marketing necessitates both normative research that can “develop

knowledge that has the potential to be applied by school principals in order to improve the marketing of their schools” (p. 24) and empirical research that can “describe, explain, predict and understand marketing activities and phenomena that actually exist” (p. 25). Normatively, this study synthesizes the existing literature on the operational and marketing purposes and capabilities of websites, view books, prospectuses and associated marketing materials at the compulsory and post-

secondary education levels to develop a comprehensive rubric that identifies the

specific content resources that are expected or recommended to be offered on the home websites of schools, colleges and universities. The researcher also relied on existing relevant literature to establish criteria for identifying each of the 69 individual elements included in the comprehensive rubric as promotional in purpose, operational in

purpose, both operational and promotional (operational/promotional) in purpose, and “not determined” as either promotional or operational in purpose. This comprehensive rubric, detailed in this study’s Methods chapter, can serve as a guiding document to inform public school and charter school leaders who are seeking to evaluate and improve the operational and marketing capabilities and effectiveness of their school websites.

Empirically, this study utilizes the new comprehensive rubric to measure which of the 69 expected or recommended content elements are or are not available on the home websites of 141 public schools, 54 charter schools, 58 private schools, and 11 universities and colleges in a central region of North Carolina. The analysis of this rubric data, as guided by this study’s four research questions, focuses on similarities and differences in the types and quantities of operational and promotional content elements featured on the examined websites. This data analysis produced four central findings, discussed below, that inform this study’s primary research purpose of

assessing the extent to which public school leaders, in comparison to charter school leaders, are leveraging their school websites as both operational and marketing platforms targeted towards current and prospective stakeholders.

Discussion of Findings

Finding #1 – Public school and charter school websites, on average, did not provide a majority of the 69 expected or recommended elements identified in the comprehensive rubric. The application of the comprehensive rubric to the home websites of 141 public schools and 54 charter schools in central North Carolina determined that the examined public school and charter school websites, on average, offered less than 50% of the 69 elements identified by existing research as expected by or recommended for current or prospective stakeholders of an individual school. This finding indicates that public school and charter school websites in this region did not provide sufficient quantities of expected and recommended elements for stakeholders and that most public school and charter school leaders are not fully leveraging the operational and marketing capabilities of their individual school websites. Although previous quantitative research on the content elements and resources offered on charter school websites does not exist, the rubric findings of this study are comparable to earlier studies of public school websites in the United States that similarly concluded public school websites faltered in providing necessary or recommended online

resources for a diversity of school stakeholders (Friedman, Hartshorne & Algozzine, 2005; Hartshorne, Friedman, Algozzine, & Kaur, 2008; Miller, Adsit, & Miller, 2005). However, in assessing the deficiencies of public school websites identified in previous studies as compared to this study, it is important to note that the prior studies, which did not discuss charter schools or potential marketplace competition, focused primarily on the day-to-day operational purposes of school websites while the rubric used here is among the first to also incorporate elements and resources that are

identified as promotional in purpose (Friedman, Hartshorne & Algozzine, 2005; Hartshorne, Friedman, Algozzine, & Kaur, 2008; Miller, Adsit, & Miller, 2005). The earlier studies determined that a majority of public school websites did not sufficiently provide the basic operational and informational elements and resources expected and desired by existing stakeholders of a school. The rubric data produced in this 2018 study indicates that the operational and informational resources assessed in earlier studies are now more prevalent on public school websites. In fact, with only the three exceptions of Mission Statement/Values, Homework Hotline/Tutoring and Student Work, the public school websites examined in this study offered higher percentages of every element and resource identified and measured in Miller, Adist, and Miller’s

(2005) and Hartshorne, Friedman, Algozzine, and Kaur’s (2008) studies of public school websites in different regions of the United States. As this is the first study to specifically assess the operational elements offered on charter school websites, it is noted that the charter school websites in this study also provided higher cumulative percentages of each of the previously identified elements, including the three exceptions noted above, than the public school websites examined in the earlier studies.

Instead, the low cumulative percentages of rubric elements offered on public school websites, as well as charter school websites, indicated in this study primarily results from the inclusion of promotional elements on this study’s comprehensive rubric and the corresponding limited availability of promotional elements featured on public school and charter school websites. While the examined public school and charter school websites provided 62.2% and 56.7%, respectively, of the 11 operational elements included in the comprehensive rubric, the same public school and charter

school websites, on average, featured just 21.4% and 40.9%, respectively, of the 20 identified promotional elements. Without prior quantitative study or analysis of the promotional elements offered on public school and charter school websites, it is not possible to determine if the frequency of promotional elements on public school and charter school websites is progressively increasing, as was determined with operational elements on public school websites, remaining stagnant or possibly even declining. Regardless, such low cumulative percentages indicate that neither public school nor charter school leaders are adequately leveraging the marketing capabilities of their school websites and thus can and should be more purposeful in providing the

promotional elements identified by existing research as expected by or recommended for potential stakeholders of a school.

Finding #2 – Public school websites provided similar but slightly higher percentages of operational elements than charter school websites, while charter school websites featured substantially higher percentages of promotional

elements than public school websites. Existing literature identifies the two primary purposes of a school website are to serve, first, as an operational hub that facilitates communication with and provides information and resources to current stakeholders and, second, as a marketing platform that identifies and promotes the people, programs, values, goals, achievements, and advantages of an individual school to both current and prospective stakeholders (Drew, 2013; Hartshorne, Friedman, Algozzine, Kaur, 2008; Hesketh & Knight, 1998; Hesketh & Selwyn, 1999; Hu & Soong, 2007; Miller, Adsit, & Miller, 2005; Taddeo & Barnes, 2016). Prior quantitative research examining the quality and effectiveness of public school websites indicates that public school leaders

value the operational and informational purposes of school websites but their websites most often fail to provide sufficient resources and elements for stakeholders (Friedman, Hartshorne & Algozzine, 2005; Hartshorne, Friedman, Algozzine, & Kaur, 2008; Miller, Adsit, & Miller, 2005; Taddeo & Barnes, 2016). Similar quantitative research has not specifically examined the promotional content or marketing purposes of public school websites nor assessed the operational and marketing elements and resources provided on charter school websites. However, the relevant literature on education marketing indicates that charter school leaders, in comparison to public school leaders, have more readily pursued and adapted marketing strategies and practices, and thus anticipates that charter school leaders are more likely to leverage school websites as marketing platforms by featuring higher quantities of promotional elements (Jabbar, 2016; Lubienski, Linick, & York, 2012). Indeed, this study shows that the examined public school and charter school websites provided relatively similar types and quantities of operational elements, but that the charter school websites provided almost twice the percentage of promotional elements as the public school websites.

Operational elements was the category of elements most commonly offered on public school websites (62.2%) and the only category provided on a higher cumulative percentage of public school websites than charter school websites (56.7%). However, the cumulative difference, 5.5%, is relatively minimal and the majority of the 11

individual operational elements identified in the comprehensive rubric were offered on a similar percentage of public school and charter school websites, including Rules and Policies, Live Links/Web Resources, Contact Information for Faculty, Calendar/Events and News. The high percentage of operational elements offered on both public school

and charter school websites should not be surprising as almost all of the individual operational elements included in the comprehensive rubric have long been identified by existing research and literature as essential or recommended for inclusion on school websites (Friedman, Hartshorne & Algozzine, 2005; Hartshorne, Friedman, Algozzine, & Kaur, 2008; Miller, Adsit, & Miller, 2005). And, as discussed previously, although the public school websites examined in this 2018 study provided higher percentages of all but three of the elements assessed in earlier studies, it is noteworthy that a number of these basic operational elements and resources are not yet offered on 100% of public school and charter school websites. As two examples, just 81.5% of charter school websites and 92.9% of public school websites provided individual contact information for teachers and other faculty, while only 70.4% of charter school websites and 58.2% of public school websites offered any type of information about the school’s Parent Teacher Association. Stakeholders of a school certainly should expect the online availability of such basic information and it would be both worthwhile and interesting to determine why individual public schools and charter schools are not providing such essential operational resources. Further research could also explore whether the absence of certain operational elements on a school website does in fact hinder communication within a school community or impact stakeholders’ perceptions of an individual school.

In contrast to the operational similarities of the examined public school and charter school websites, this study identifies pronounced disparities in the types and quantities of promotional elements featured on public school and charter school websites. The cumulative average of promotional elements featured on charter school

websites totaled 40.9% as compared to only 21.4% for public school websites, and charter school websites featured higher percentages of 17 of the 20 promotional elements included in the comprehensive rubric, with only the three exceptions of Photos, Honors/A.I.G./A.P. Programming, and Faculty Biographies. While analysis of the data results for each of the individual promotional elements could offer important insight as to how charter school and public school leaders differently perceive and value particular people, programs, resources and achievements, this study, for purposes of a more broad analysis, differentiates and assesses the identified promotional

elements as either reflective of measurable indicators, such as specific resources or performance results, or of more general attributes of a school community, such as its culture, people, values and leadership.

Of the 17 promotional elements offered on a higher percentage of charter school websites, 6 elements (Awards, Facilities/Campus, Ranking, Teacher-Student Ratio, Financial Aid/Scholarships/Free and Reduced Lunch, and Matriculation) relate directly to the measurable resources, programming and results either offered or achieved by individual schools. Further study is necessary to ascertain whether the differences in percentages between charter school and public school websites for these promotional elements indicate that charter schools actually offer better resources and results than competing public schools or, instead, that charter school leaders are simply more purposeful in utilizing their school websites to communicate these promotional elements to prospective stakeholders. For instance, did a substantially higher

percentage of the examined charter schools earn academic and non-academic awards than the examined public schools, or were the examined public schools earning similar

awards but fewer public school leaders opted to feature this promotional information on their school websites? Such research could, importantly, both contextualize and compare the resources, performance and marketing of charter schools and public schools in shared marketplaces. However, until then, this study clearly shows that charter school leaders are more purposeful than public school leaders in using school websites to promote the measurable resources and outcomes of individual schools to prospective students and their families.

While the 6 promotional elements discussed above are reflective of measurable indicators, the remaining promotional elements featured on a higher percentage of charter school websites than public school websites are instead primarily indicative of how school leaders can and do define and highlight the unique or positive purposes, values, cultures or benefits of individual school communities to prospective

stakeholders. As such, conceivably every school leader, regardless of a school’s resources or performance, possesses the opportunity to feature these promotional elements, which include Diversity, History/Date Founded, Motto/Branding Statement, Why Apply/Why Us, Invitation to Visit, Alumni Information, Parent Testimonials, Demographics, Student Profile, and Student Testimonials, on their individual school websites. As an example, assuming school leaders or faculty members have access to the necessary technology and the ability to update their school websites, any school website, as recommended by existing research and literature, can feature written or video testimonials of current students and families to share their personal perspectives on the positive experiences and benefits of attending a specific school (Hartley &

38.9% of charter school websites offered Parent Testimonials and Student

Testimonials, respectively, these percentages are nevertheless significantly greater than the 4.3% and 6.4% of public school websites that provided these same testimonials. As another example, 42.6% of charter school websites included a separate section or at least specific language that identified the reasons why students and families should choose to enroll in a particular charter school as compared to only 3.5% of public school websites that included similar language or information to address the

promotional element of Why Apply/Why Us. The data findings for these promotional elements, which are not directly tied to the measurable resources or performance of a school, demonstrate that charter school leaders are also more proficient than public school leaders in utilizing the marketing capabilities of school websites to highlight and promote the culture, values, people, and other unique attributes of a school community to potential stakeholders.

As suggested above, differences in the promotional elements featured on charter school websites and public school websites are certainly to be expected, as the existing literature on education marketing documents that charter schools and charter school leaders, as compared to public schools and public school leaders, have more readily