The following study examined the question of student achievement in online charter schools and how the achievement scores of students at online charter schools compare to achievement scores of students at traditional schools. Arizona has seen explosive growth in charter schools and online charter schools. A study comparing how these two types of…

This comparative case study analyzed two styles of coaching, team and individual, and the perceived impact each style has on instructional practices. This study was conducted in two elementary schools that are part of the same charter organization in California. The study identified the challenges and benefits of each style through interviews with…

Adolescent readers require a broad range of reading skills to deal with the challenges of reading complex text. Some researchers argue for a discipline-specific focus to address the low reading proficiency rates among secondary students. Disciplinary literacy attends to the different ways disciplines, such as science, generate and communicate…

In North Carolina, charter schools that serve whites and non-economically disadvantaged students have doubled in the last fourteen years, whereas schools that serve economically disadvantaged students have closed at higher rates (Ladd, Clotfelter, & Holbein, 2015). Stories of school leadership that successfully promotes equity and excellence…

School choice is a popular and controversial topic across the nation. School choice options include both public schools such as charter schools and magnet schools, as well as private school options. In North Carolina, the cap was lifted on the number of charter schools in 2011 and since that time additional charter schools have opened each year.…

Homeschool families have the freedom to uniquely structure the learning environment to meet the needs of their children. Many homeschool parents increasingly rely on digital devices and the Internet to provide alternatives to traditional and private schools. Cooperatives (co-ops), charter school partnerships, virtual academies, online tutors,…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand how utilizing the Core Knowledge Sequence and aligned curricular resources influenced teachers' perceived self-efficacy for a sample of Arizona elementary charter school teachers. The sample for this study was a convenience sample of 15 elementary teachers, who were currently…

Distance education is rapidly changing the way K-12 students learn. School districts use it for course recovery, to supplement the curriculum with additional courses, and to offer alternative educational opportunities. Pennsylvania's 500 public school superintendents face a unique challenge in an economic recession, severe cuts in state funding,…

This empirical study compared the organizational identification and professional identity of teachers in charter and regular public schools. The purpose of study was three-fold; the first was to investigate whether charter school teachers differ from their regular public school peers in the study variables (i.e. self-efficacy, perceived…

The state of Delaware has expanded its K-12 educational structure and now offers parents and students an alternative to public education. Some of the charter schools in the state have excelled academically, fiscally, and organizationally, while others have been criticized for being financially irresponsible, or not meeting the state's academic…

This qualitative study explored the awareness and perceptions of a select group of parents about specialty and charter school offerings in a large countywide school system in a mid-Atlantic state. The study utilized focus groups as the primary source of data collection to obtain information from parents about their knowledge and opinion of current…

The charter school movement has maintained substantial momentum over the past decade, particularly among African American students. Various studies suggest that African American students are performing well in select charter schools (Almond, 2012; Carter 2011; Macey, Decker, & Eckes, 2009). What is not known is why African American students…

According to the Nation's Report Card (2015), American schools are suffering a double-digit academic gap between minority and non-minority students in reading proficiency scores and graduation rates. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of mediated reading (MR) across the curriculum on the achievement of at-risk low-SES minority…

The literature suggests that while the number of students attending virtual charter schools continues to grow in Pennsylvania, math student academic performance in 6th and 7th-grade math in students attending cyber charter schools falls well below the state average. Although it is tempting to assume that the concern of summer slide would be…

This dissertation consists of three essays using publicly reported internal control deficiencies to examine agency conflicts in the unique organizational setting provided by nonprofit charter schools. In my first essay, I find evidence that increased agency conflicts in nonprofit charter schools are "not" associated with increased…