| This research study used quantitative as well as qualitative techniques to investigate the content and manner of presentation of high school mission statements. Text analysis was done by human raters as well as by computer. High school mission statements were analyzed for characteristics of content, clarity and motivational tone. Independent variables were the recognized sources of authority defining school systems such as public, separate, private sectarian and private Christian. Fifteen dependent variables were categorized according to four themes within the educational enterprise: stakeholders; philosophy; strategic planning ; and presentation. Two hypotheses were tested with the following overall results: (1) High school mission statements exhibited different content and text clarity according to sources of institutional authority; (2) The mission statements of academically higher performing schools exhibited more of the desired components. The private sector and in particular the Christian sector came out looking much more educationally vigorous than the public sector. |
