Thesis advisor: Joseph O'Keefe / This study applied the economic theory of marketplace competition as a framework to explore how district superintendents perceive the existence of charter schools by examining their perceptions about whether or not charter schools are stimulating competition for consumers in public school districts. As its underlying foundation, the study used the driving forces of competition and innovation as expressed in the legislative intent of the 1993 Massachusetts law that designed created charter schools to provide an alternative to district schools by promoting innovation. This mixed methods sequential explanatory designed study has yielded findings about superintendents' perceptions of charter schools within the context of a competitive educational marketplace. Not only do superintendents sense urgency to act within a competitive charter school market, but other schooling options for students similarly add competitive pressure. Superintendents perceive that the impact on their district budget is constraining, and that the funding formula does not take into consideration school systems' economies of scale. Most superintendents perceive the choice market as limited or a "quasi-market" unlike in a pure market-based economy where cost is a driving factor. This study found that there is considerable sentiment among superintendents that charter schools separate communities and decrease democratic principles of education by separating society into smaller homogeneous groups, thereby endangering the growth of a multicultural society. And lastly, all superintendents who were interviewed expressed concern that the driving force of this movement - the charter school legislation - has not been implemented as intended. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

The deepening dissatisfaction with traditional public schools has inspired changes in the educational system. In less than a decade charter schools have gone from nonexistent to widespread. Charter schools are different from other reforms because charter schools tend to vary in terms of their performance and population served. Some charter schools are obviously more effective than others in terms of their performance on reading, writing and mathematics state-mandated tests. Therefore, the purpose of this study of the correlates of charter school effectiveness is to measure the strength and direction of their relationships between charter schools performance and their organizational, financial and organizational characteristics. My research concludes that among the demographic, financial and organizational variables selected the attendance rate; the central administration expenses and the total number of teachers respectively have the strongest correlation and are the best predictors when it comes to school performance.

The deepening dissatisfaction with traditional public schools has inspired changes in the educational system. In less than a decade charter schools have gone from nonexistent to widespread. Charter schools are different from other reforms because charter schools tend to vary in terms of their performance and population served. Some charter schools are obviously more effective than others in terms of their performance on reading, writing and mathematics state-mandated tests. Therefore, the purpose of this study of the correlates of charter school effectiveness is to measure the strength and direction of their relationships between charter schools performance and their organizational, financial and organizational characteristics. My research concludes that among the demographic, financial and organizational variables selected the attendance rate; the central administration expenses and the total number of teachers respectively have the strongest correlation and are the best predictors when it comes to school performance.

Title from title page of PDF (University of Missouri--St. Louis, viewed February 24, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 88-96).

Thesis (Ed.D)--Boise State University, 2005. / Includes abstracts. Appendix E includes the complete preliminary study and the first three chapters of the dissertation titled: Preliminary study : nine themes of multiliteracies, a literary implementation framework. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online via the ProQuest Digital Dissertations database.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "May, 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-121). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-179).

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Political Science, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Contemporary public education is viewed by many to be in turmoil, in part due to a changing population: increases in the number of students of poverty, handicapped individuals, teen parents, and students for whom English is not a first language. These and other issues have changed the face of our expectations for American education, and a "one size fits all" mentality will no longer suffice. The resulting school reform often appears in the guise of school choice. School choice can take many forms, including the voucher system, tuition tax credits, magnet schools, and charter schools, among others. This study examines the perceived differences, as viewed by parents, between charter schools and traditional public schools, and the ambient or intangible reasons that parents are making the choice for charter schools. A charter school on the Texas-Mexico border, which had been in existence for at least two years was selected for the study. Participants in the study were parents, all mothers, who completed a pre-survey of basic demographic information. Two extensive interviews were completed for each. Three focus groups, also consisting of charter school parents, were convened and interviewed in an effort to triangulate the data. Chapter Four of the study provides thick descriptions of the participants, while Chapter Five organizes the findings into common, emerging themes. Chapter Six provides the conclusions of the study which indicate that there are some commonalities and some differences perceived by parents between charter and public schools. The ambient or intangible factors involved in choice decision were not found to be any different than those found in other literature on school choice. Implications for the practitioner and future researchers are included in the final chapter. / text

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pennsylvania State University, 2005. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.