The opinions of high school principals about their schools reputation

With a notice that was issued by the Ministry of National Education, all the public high schools were gradually converted into Anatolian High School as of 2010. The aim of this research is to determine the criteria of school reputation of Anatolian High schools and how and to what extent the criteria changed after the notice was issued. Qualitative research was conducted in this research. The procedure of data collection is rooted in a maximum variation sampling. Anatolian High schools located in Buca, Izmir, were classified according to students’ placement scores and by dividing these schools according to levels such as upper, low and intermediate, two school principals from each level were interviewed face-to-face. The data were analyzed with the computer programme MAXODA. The findings were edited considering the implementation of converting general high school into Anatolian High School. According to the findings, school reputation is influenced by 7 themes, namely “Being a Preferable School, The Education Quality of the School, Relationships with the Environment, The Adequacy of Financial Resources, The Service Quality of the School, Management Skills and The Effect of the Conversion of Anatolian High Schools.” It was understood that the school reputation of schools that were Anatolian High schools before the notice was issued declined whereas the school reputation of schools that were converted into Anatolian High school with the notice increased. Key words: Schools’ reputation, Anatolian High Schools, Turkey education system, quantitative research.