School-Based Attributes Instrumental in Student Success in a Florida Charter Middle School: a Formative Case Study Nancy B. Hastings 1 & Holley L. Handley 1 Published online: 7 May 2019 # Association for Educational Communications & Technology 2019 Abstract This article discusses the use of domains identified by Hattie (2009) as a research framework to conduct a qualitative, single-case study to identify attributes perceived to be instrumental in student success in a Florida Charter middle school. This study examined best practices contributing to the long-term sustained success of the middle school students in an effort to maintain and replicate high student achievement. The following question directed this study: BWhat school-based attributes do adminis- trators and teachers perceive to be instrumental in student success in a Florida charter middle school?^ Through research and synthesis of over 1200 meta-analyses, Hattie and his team of researchers identified 195 influences that impact learning in schools. Hattie categorized these influences into six domains identified as major contributors to learning. This case study addressed those domains under a school’ s control: (a) school, (b) teacher, (c) curricula, (d) teaching. These categories provided the framework to examine the factors responsible for student success in the charter school. The data sources for the study were teacher interviews, administrator interviews, and classroom observations. The coding strategy integrated pre-figured codes aligned with Hattie’ s (2009, 2011), Hattie’ s(Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 1(1), 79–91, 2015) domains (school, teacher, curricula, and teaching) while allowing for the possibility for emergent codes. Research credibility was established by (a) prolonged engagement of the researcher, (b) triangulation of data, (c) identification of potential bias, and (d) peer review. The conceptual framework used as a foundation for the study provided the structure to facilitate reliability of this research. Data collection and analysis led to the identification of three over-arching themes, flexibility, personalized learning, and high expec- tations, as key attributes contributing to student success. Keywords Charter school . Hattie's visible learning . Case study . Formative design Introduction Charter schools, like other educational solutions, appear to fall into a category that is partially a trend-driven solution and partially an unquantified school-choice option (Chabrier et al. 2016). A charter school is a tax-supported school established under a contract or charter between a granting body, such as a school board, and an interested group, such as an organized formation of teachers and parents, that operates under the established contract and state authority (Fryer Jr. 2014). Several studies have attempted to unwrap the charter school movement and shed scientific light on what is happening (Fryer Jr. 2014; Roch and Sai 2015). Recent research examines the effect of charter schools both internally and externally and includes a study of North Carolina schools by Bettinger (2005), and a similar study of Florida schools by Sass (2006). On a more comprehensive basis, Finn Jr. et al. (2001) studied 100 charter schools asking the overarching question, BCan charter schools save public education?^ The common theme across all of these studies is that more research is needed to answer this question. According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (2016), charter schools are the fastest growing school choice in the nation. The State of Florida is one of the top ten growth centers for charter schools. Despite this growth, both advocates and opponents of charter schools remain. The subject of this study is one of the first charter schools in Northwest Florida, which was founded in 1996. The initial * Holley L. Handley hhandley@uwf.edu Nancy B. Hastings nhastings@uwf.edu 1 College of Education and Professional Studies, Department of Instructional Design and Technology, University of West Florida, Building 85, Room 114, 11000 University Pkwy, Pensacola, FL 32514, USA Journal of Formative Design in Learning (2019) 3:39–52 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41686-019-00028-z