The charter school movement in the United States grew from a handful of schools in Minnesota in 1991 to more than 4,500 schools in 41 states as of December 2008 and to more than 5,400 schools serving more than 1.7 million students in 2010. This proliferation has increased the opportunities for academic performance in those 41 states and for…

Since 9/11, the repercussions of religious intolerance have reached center stage, highlighted by religious hate crime statistics, governmental policies, and documented cases of increased anxiety. Religious illiteracy is also highlighted as a phenomenon across the American landscape. Conceptual arguments hold that knowledge of other religions can…

The purpose of this study was to discover how pre-service teachers (PSTs), classroom teachers, and administrators in an urban charter school perceive their own professional autonomy and administrative support by the school, and how the balance of autonomy and support impact their instructional practices. I designed and implemented this research as…

Using a South Los Angeles charter school of approximately 650 students operated by a non-profit charter management organization (CMO) as the primary field site, this two-year, ethnographic research project examines the implementation of a one-to-one tablet computer program in a public high school. This dissertation examines the variety of ways…

Online education is unique in part for the relatively high degrees of autonomy afforded learners. Self-direction and self-regulation, along with support, are essential for students to succeed. The site of this action research project was a new, small online public charter school for middle and high school students, Foothills Academy Connected…

This study was intended to enhance the limited research on the knowledge and confidence of special education teachers in public education regarding transition services and the quality of transition plans they develop. The key variables examined in this study are knowledge, confidence, and the quality of student transition plans. The sample…

In August 2006, in accordance with a recently passed charter school law, a Mid-Atlantic school district opened its first public charter schools. The charter schools' staff had opportunities to exercise autonomy over their instruction and had very little in-service training. This study examined what seven teachers at a newly created charter school…

This study examined the institution-building efforts of a leading charter school management organization, Achievement First. The study used a conceptual framework derived from institutional theory in sociology that offers two competing policy contexts in which charter schools and charter management organizations operate--a bureaucratic versus…

Current literature on dual language programs is focused at the elementary school level, while research at the secondary level remains sparse. Hence, this study addresses the literature gap by considering the impact of school organization and instruction on these programs. Specifically, this collective case study examines the effective features of…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of Arkansas and Louisiana district conversion and open-enrollment charter school principals' background characteristics, leadership skills, and school success. A quantitative methodology was used to test the research questions prescribed in the study. Data was collected using a survey. The…

This dissertation is composed of three distinct chapters, each of which addresses issues of estimating treatment effects. The first chapter empirically tests the Value-Added (VA) model using school lotteries. The second chapter, co-authored with Michael Wood, considers properties of inverse probability weighting (IPW) in simple treatment effect…

The purpose of this research was to analyze North Carolina traditional public school principals' perspectives about and experiences with charter schools. A history of school choice in America was explored, as well as the changing role of public school principals. This dissertation presented a thorough review of the literature on school choice and…

Professional Learning Communties (PLCs) school reform movement that is grounded in decades of research. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether or not a PLC would help in cultivating a culture of learning and collaboration at a small charter school in Delaware. The research involved interviews of teachers, administrators and a data…

Heavily utilizing both instructional technology and face-to-face instruction within a bricks-and-mortar school environment, blended learning charter schools are gaining attention as a cost-effective school design. As educators turn to these blended learning school models to improve both the operational efficiency and student outcomes of America's…

Data and the use of data to make educational decisions have attained new-found prominence in K-12 education following the inception of high-stakes testing and subsequent linking of teacher evaluations and teacher-performance pay to students' outcomes on standardized assessments. Although the research literature suggested students' academic…