Qualitative Findings

Figure 5 presents the 10 themes that were most represented among 1,610 principals’ open-ended responses to the item “In your own words, what are the most important NEEDS facing your school in the next 2–5 years?” Their individual responses, ranging from 1 to 317 words in length, were coded into 4,315 text segments. Among these, two themes were decidedly most prominent. Over 1,000 text segments dealt with matters of enrollment management and 930 addressed financial management. Almost half as many comments—463 text segments—contained references to development. Marketing and capital improvements were mentioned in 277 and 229 responses, respectively. Figure 5 also lists the five additional themes rounding out the top 10 most frequently mentioned content areas. Consult Table 12 for a summary of all 26 themes distilled from principals’ commentary about their most important needs.