1. Methodology Does School Mission Matter? An Arizona Test Robert Maranto (rmaranto@uark.edu), Alexandra Vasile, Danish Shakeel, Department of Education Reform, University of Arkansas Results and Discussion Introduction Within public organizations generally (Goodsell 2011) and public schools in particular (Bryk and Schneider 2004), dedication to mission matters. Case studies suggest that charter schools which open with clear missions regarding curricula and culture are more likely to remain open and grow, while those which open first and develop their missions later are less likely to succeed (Kayes and Maranto, 2006). Further, public schools of all types serving at-risk children are less likely to succeed (Payne 2008). Arizona charter schools are more likely to be held accountable than traditional public schools, more than six times as likely to close and with closures more closely associated with academic performance (Milliman, in press). We will take advantage of this natural experiment to test whether school mission matters, that is, whether a school’s original stated mission is associated with organizational survival; thus: H1. Charter schools with defined missions are more likely to survive. H2. Charter schools targeting at-risk students are less likely to survive. Our independent variable is the school mission as indicated on the charter application for the first two cohorts (opening 1995 and 1996; n=57) of Arizona charters. Our dependent variable is dichotomous, whether the school remained open in 2012 or had closed. School missions included serving at-risk students (n=11), Montessori (7), college prep (6), various other missions (10), and schools whose operators failed to designate a mission (24). These designations have high construct validity, with at-risk school mean student bodies 66% minority, compared to 28% for college prep schools, 13% for Montessori, and 23% for schools without distinct missions. Conclusion We find no evidence that charter schools targeting disadvantaged students are more apt to close, though they do grow more slowly. We find statistical support for the hypothesis that schools lacking defined missions are more apt to close, as fits with a long line of research in organization theory generally and among schools in particular. Authorizers should take this into account when considering charter applications. Results There was no greater tendency for schools targeting at-risk students to close: nine of 11 remained open. Similarly, five of six college preparatory schools and five of seven Montessori schools remained open. Yet only 11 of 24 schools (46%) with undefined missions remained open. Simply dividing the sample into schools with and without missions, we find that 25 of 30 (83%) of schools with initial missions remained open, compared to 46% of schools without (chi sq.=8.438, df=1, p=.000). Schools lacking distinct missions grew by a mean of only 1.7% enrollment in the period, compared to 91.1% for Montessori schools, 16.1% for college prep schools, and -3.4% for at-risk schools. Possibly, the negative growth of at-risk campuses reflects a desire to provide small learning environments. TABLE I. Percentage of schools that remained open by type (using data collected from Arizona Department of Education). TABLE II. Mean total campus level percentage enrollment growth by school type for 1995-2012. (using data collected from Arizona Department of Education).