Sustaining success in an American school: a case for governance change

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to revisit a successful school to see how the principal had sustained success over time. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a case study research design similar to the 2005 report. Findings The old findings revealed a principal who had used direction setting, developing people and redesigning the organization, as well as the enabling principles of accountability, caring and learning to turn around a failing, high poverty urban school. The new findings revealed that, while the same core practices and enabling principles were still in place, a significant change in governance structure had been required to sustain the school's success. Specifically, the school converted from a traditional public school to a charter school in order to protect investments made in teacher professional development. The resulting initiatives, introduced to stem teacher turnover, led to the emergence of greater teacher leadership and professional self‐renewal processes that sustained the school's success. Originality/value The paper adds to the literature on sustaining school success and the utility of governance change.