School-Based Attributes Instrumental in Student Success in a Florida Charter Middle School: a Formative Case Study

This article discusses the use of domains identified by Hattie ( 2009 ) as a research framework to conduct a qualitative, single-case study to identify attributes perceived to be instrumental in student success in a Florida Charter middle school. This study examined best practices contributing to the long-term sustained success of the middle school students in an effort to maintain and replicate high student achievement. The following question directed this study: “What school-based attributes do administrators and teachers perceive to be instrumental in student success in a Florida charter middle school?” Through research and synthesis of over 1200 meta-analyses, Hattie and his team of researchers identified 195 influences that impact learning in schools. Hattie categorized these influences into six domains identified as major contributors to learning. This case study addressed those domains under a school’s control: (a) school, (b) teacher, (c) curricula, (d) teaching. These categories provided the framework to examine the factors responsible for student success in the charter school. The data sources for the study were teacher interviews, administrator interviews, and classroom observations. The coding strategy integrated pre-figured codes aligned with Hattie’s ( 2009 , 2011 ), Hattie’s ( Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 1 (1), 79–91, 2015 ) domains (school, teacher, curricula, and teaching) while allowing for the possibility for emergent codes. Research credibility was established by (a) prolonged engagement of the researcher, (b) triangulation of data, (c) identification of potential bias, and (d) peer review. The conceptual framework used as a foundation for the study provided the structure to facilitate reliability of this research. Data collection and analysis led to the identification of three over-arching themes, flexibility, personalized learning, and high expectations, as key attributes contributing to student success.