School administrators' views on excellent schools

The research was conducted with the aim of revealing the opinions of school administrators about the indicators of an excellent school. The research was conducted using a phenomenological design based on qualitative research method, and the data were collected from twelve school administrators selected by criterion and maximum diversity sampling, which are purposeful sampling methods. In the study, the data were collected with the Semi-structured "School Administrator Interview Form" created by the researcher in line with the expert opinions. The data collected with the Semi-structured School Administrator Interview Form were analysed with descriptive and content analyses. Qualitative research analysis programme MAXQDA-24 was used to analyse the data. The study group of the research consists of school administrators working in public schools in the central district of Isparta province. As a result of the research, according to the opinions of school administrators; findings related to the concept of excellence, the concept of excellent school and the indicators of excellent school were revealed. According to the opinions of school administrators, the indicators of excellent schools were examined under nine themes: school administrators, teachers, students, educational curriculum, financial management, ethical behaviours, school culture, school climate and environment. As a result of the research, in an excellent school, indicators such as being attentive and empathising with stakeholders, being hardworking, being a leader; indicators such as being self-sacrificing and determined, being a role model and behaving respectfully, being an expert, guiding students and transferring knowledge, being open to development; indicators such as students being hardworking and perfectionist; indicators such as students being hardworking and perfectionist, being respectful and helping each other, being open to learning; indicators related to the curriculum such as flexible curriculum, implicit curriculum and extra curriculum implementation, material support provided by the school principal, process-oriented evaluation and portfolio evaluation, graduating well-equipped students; indicators related to the management of financial resources such as creating financial resources, effective use of resources; indicators related to ethical behaviours such as realistic and fair decision making, equal treatment and honesty, open communication; indicators related to school culture such as traditions and heroic stories, transfer of school culture, quality of school, acting as a team and belief in team success; indicators related to school climate such as quality of teaching and self-development, safe environment, adequacy of school equipment; indicators related to the environment such as participation of graduates in activities, cooperation with parents, directorate of national education, other schools and parent teacher association. In line with the findings of the study, it is suggested that excellent schools should be studied with different samples and methods, the excellent school model should be revealed, and schools aiming to become excellent schools should implement these indicators.