This study was conducted because of the uneven development of Muhammadiyah schools, especially for the SD/MI level in Banyumas Regency in the last 5 years. This study aims to describe and analyze the use of the principal's entrepreneurial competence in building progressive schools at SD/MI Muhammadiyah in Banyumas Regency.
The type of this research is descriptive qualitative with phenomenological methods. The data collection process used by this research were interview, observation and documentation guidelines. The data analysis technique was through some steps as data collection, data reduction, data display, and verification/drawing conclusions.
This research reveals that actually the principals of SD/MI Muhammadiyah in Banyumas Regency have good entrepreneurial competencies although they were not the same from one and another. Some schools have been able to create programs that are very innovative and have a big impact on the growth of the schools that they lead. One of the important factors that can affect the ability of school principals to create innovative programs is the existence of a school network.
In conclusion, entrepreneurial competence is a very important competency in building a progressive school. The strategy used by school principals in developing the school that they lead is part of the use of the principal's entrepreneurial competence. The factor of ownership of the school network turns out to be one of the factors in increasing the entrepreneurial competence of school principals. Schools that have established partnership with the other schools outside their area appear to be able to develop more innovative and relatively new programs compared to schools that do not set up collaboration with other schools. This can happen because the school network is able to make school principals to adopt and then apply the program to the schools that they lead.