Habib Özgan
Faculty of Education Department of Educational Sciences, Gaziantep-Turkey

ABSTRACT
Problem Statement: As institutionalization is requisite in all organizations, so it is in all schools. Institutionalization enables schools to operate in line with their objectives and managerial processes (planning, decision making, organizing, directing, coordination and evaluation) more effectively. The spread of private schools introduced competition to the education sector. As a natural consequence of heightened competition, it became a requirement for schools to be more efficient and effective.
Purpose of Study: The purpose of the present research is to develop, as well as perform, validity and reliability analyses of the School Institutionalization Scale (SIS), which can be employed to evaluate the institutionalization of private schools.
Methods: The research population consists of private schools in the city center of Gaziantep, and the study group is composed of seven randomly selected private schools (223 teachers). Based on relevant literature, an item pool has been prepared. The content validity of the scale has been established by consulting field experts. The construct validity of the scale has been set through a factor analysis.
Findings and Results: The scale consists of a total of 45 items and six factors. The general reliability coefficient of the scale is a Cronbach Alpha of .96, which is rather high. Reliability coefficients calculated with the Cronbach Alpha vary in all sub-scales between .74 and .94. Considering the fact that the projected level of reliability for all measurement tools in research is .70, it can be stated that the scale’s level of reliability for all its sub-dimensions is sufficient. The sub-dimensions of the scale have been named as Cultural Strength, Specialization, Social Responsibility, Adaptability, Formalizing and Consistency. Explained variance is at an acceptable level with a ratio of 62.82%. Accordingly, it can be asserted that each item has a discrimination index in detecting the institutionalization levels of their schools.
Conclusions and Recommendations: The School Institutionalization Scale is highly reliable and possesses sufficient internal consistency. Hence, the findings support the theory that the Institutionalization Scale has sufficient validity to detect the institutionalization levels of schools. It is suggested that future studies focus on developing and testing through different samplings the validity of the internal consistency of the scale.
Keywords: School Institutionalization Scale, private schools.