Schools with positive cultures are more likely than those with neutral or negative cultures to have motivated and academically successful students, as well as more motivated, committed, and productive teachers. In schools with positive cultures, staffs share a common purpose, vision, and commitment to student learning. These schools have staff that engage in ceremonies and rituals that celebrate both teacher and student successes; the staff function as a community of learners, with teachers engaged in conversations about the quality of student and teacher work and using data to drive decisions. The norms of the staff are reflective of mutual respect, as well as a dedication to problem solving, conflict resolution, and continuous improvement.

Little is known about the specifics of the culture formation of new schools, in particular charter schools. This study looked at the culture of three recently formed charter schools, with an analysis of the specifics of their cultures and detailed description organizational culture in new schools. The purpose of this study was to determine what leaders of new charter schools can do to help create and sustain positive cultures.

Participating schools completed a staff culture questionnaire that was analyzed to determine both the school's overall level of culture as well as the school's ranking within four key areas of culture identified from the review of literature. A semi-structured interview protocol was used for teacher focus groups and principal interviews. Key findings from the analysis of the questionnaire, focus groups, and interviews included a confirmation that creating a shared vision and mission with staff, establishing collaborative learning communities, and forming staff professional norms are important elements of creating and sustaining positive cultures. In addition, principals should use symbols, rituals, and stories to celebrate students and staff successes, although some principals were uncomfortable with their own ability to do this and teachers indicated they would like more to be done in this area. Principals and school leaders also used unplanned events or crises during the founding of the school to help bond the staff and create a positive culture. Finally, the most important finding was that principals and teachers saw the hiring process as key to creating and sustaining the cultures of their schools. They used it to weed out people who didn't agree with their core values, find teachers who had strong work ethics and genuinely valued collaboration and feedback, and ask probing questions in ways that would help them recruit teachers who were the best fit for their schools.