abstract: Arizona’s district and charter communities have a history of conflict, including working against each other when advocating policy positions at the state legislature. The purpose of this research was to improve the relationship between the district and charter communities through an intervention based on intergroup contact theory. Through her personal network, the researcher formed and facilitated the Arizona Initiative for Public Education Dialogue (AZ iPED), comprised of eight district superintendents and charter leaders. This mixed-methods, action research study explored what happened when Arizona school district superintendents and charter school leaders were brought through intergroup contact to discuss potential policies they could jointly support. This study addressed the following three research questions: To what extent does intergroup contact increase allophilia (positive attitudes) between Arizona school district and charter school leaders? In what ways do participants voice allophilia during in-group dialogue? How do school district superintendents and charter school leaders socially construct and negotiate narratives that support the conflict between their two communities? The members of AZ iPED met four times from October through December, 2016. Allophilia (positive feelings toward the outgroup) data included an Allophilia Scale administered at the beginning and end of the study and transcripts of first and second in-group district and charter focus groups. Results are reported through descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon signed ranks of matched samples, and content analysis. Findings indicated a non-statistically significant increase in allophilia. Content analysis also indicated increases in the quantity and quality of allophilia talk. Narrative analysis of conflict talk generated the four following themes: competition sets the stage for conflict, actions construct conflict, perceptions sustain conflict, and conflict causes feelings. Those themes provided structure for compiling a collective District Narrative and collective Charter Narrative, which were further analyzed through the lens of conflict-sustaining collective narratives. Narrative analysis of select portions of the transcript suggested processes through which conflict-sustaining narratives were constructed and negotiated during intergroup contact. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2017

This dissertation is a qualitative-based program evaluation that explored the existing charter school accountability measures, processes, and oversight systems of the California Department of Education (CDE) in relation to State Board of Education (SBE)-authorized charter schools. This dissertation further explored the potential program improvements that could be implemented to improve the charter school oversight functions of the SBE and CDE. After a charter school receives authorization and approval to operate, the degrees of accountably and oversight vary dependent upon the charter authorizer and the oversite entity. This dissertation study aimed to discover how charter schools authorized by the SBE are held accountable as the SBE delegates its oversight authority to the CDE. Data were collected from the CDE by way of interviews, artifact analysis, and participatory research. Furthermore, this dissertation study aimed to delineate how accountability and oversight systems subsequently impact both charter schools and authorizers, as these two entities are currently governed by the outdated Charter School Act of 1992. Finally, this dissertation study aimed to provide recommendations which may potentially be used as a guide to influence future legislation and or improve the CDE’s charter schools oversight processes. The findings of this study included six recommendations for future practice and three recommendations for future research.

The purpose of this youth participatory action research (YPAR) project was to challenge the pedagogy of traditional literacy instruction for low-income Latino/a students, particularly the overuse of scripted curricula and standardized tests mandated through the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Twelve student participants served as co-teachers and co-researchers as they created, implemented, and evaluated a critical literacy class based on the theoretical frameworks of critical pedagogy and critical literacy and the methodology of youth participatory action research (YPAR). The YPAR Critical Literacy Group and research took place at one of a network of small, independent-study alternative schools called Future Horizons Charter High School (FHCHS, a pseudonym), located in southern California. Critical pedagogy and critical literacy formed a theoretical foundation upon which the students and teacher built a class based on the tenets of dialogue, problem-posing, and generative themes based on the interests of the student co-researchers. This alternative practice of co-creating knowledge with students was paramount in facilitating young peoples’ learning to think critically about their positionality within their political and social spheres. Critical literacy does not focus simply on the development of decoding and comprehension skills for reading, but students of critical literacy must “read the word and the world” (Freire & Macedo, 1997), grounding their acquisition of literacy skills through their own experiences and social contexts. This research examined the capacity of critical literacy and YPAR methodology to transform both learner and teacher. The YPAR Critical Literacy Group at FHCHS positively impacted the student coresearchers. Elements of qualitative research, including interviews and transcription positively impacted the students co-researchers’ traditional literacy skills. Student coresearchers evaluated the course as a positive experience throughout, and engaged in and comprehended texts far above their traditionally-defined decoding and reading comprehension reading levels. Attendance and engagement in the class for the 4-month period was consistently higher in the critical literacy class than in other reading classes offered at the school. The students experienced preliminary transformation and early stages of critical consciousness from the beginning to the end of the course, evidenced by the evolution of their reflective writings and progressively sophisticated analyses of social injustice at the school and within the broader community.

Students attending charter schools, including those with learning disabilities, are subject to policies set by individual charter management organizations. One practice used within some charter schools is grade-level retention, or having students repeat a grade level. Literature overwhelmingly indicates that retention is associated with negative outcomes, yet the practice continues to be used. One particular charter school that uses a strict retention policy and retains students with learning disabilities was studied to understand how the process unfolds. Using the conceptual frameworks of critical disability theory and critical pedagogy, the study draws inferences regarding how this phenomenon blends with ableism and power imbalances. Six teachers (four general education and two special education teachers) participated in interviews for this qualitative case study. Through triangulation of findings from individual and group interviews, trends were identified. A major finding showed that although retention is conceptualized as beneficial for the school to threat unmotivated students, for students with learning disabilities, retention is still regarded as highly ineffective and harmful. Decision making factors used with students with disabilities include particular individual characteristics, such as abilities and parental support. Discussion into participants’ perception of students with disabilities as inferior, and how retention as punishment asserts the school’s power, follows a review of concepts, effectiveness, and decision-making factors related to retention. Implications for educators to improve inclusive and fair school policies, in addition to rethinking traditional methods of analyzing school practices are discussed. Further research in various educational initiatives and areas of study are summarized.

Charter schools attempt to write a new narrative in how America serves its children in public schools. While some charter schools in urban areas serving low-income students of color have shown promising routes to academic achievement, in some cases they have not confronted the inequitable patterns of discipline they perpetuate. In this project I explore two small urban charter schools that are academically successful and do not suspend or expel their students, specifically their African-American and Latino male students. I filter this exploration through my own perspective as the former principal of a small urban charter school like the ones I study in this project. I synthesize a protective resilience frame with an organizational framework used to examine districts in order to organize and frame findings. Ultimately this dissertation and its findings should be useful for teachers and leaders in small urban charter schools seeking to organize in such a way as to limit exclusionary discipline.

High-stakes testing is currently the primary measure of student success in the United States. Based on this measure of student performance, closing the achievement gap in test scores between Black and Latinx students and their white peers has become the main indicator of success for schools serving Black and Latinx students. When schools are unable to close the achievement gap, one possible consequence is closure and replacement by a new school. This process is referred to as reconstitution. Though reconstitution was developed to provide Black and Latinx students with a more equitable educational experience, these schools often cannot raise high-stakes test scores or their efforts to raise scores have negative implications on their Black and Latinx students. Based on this context, I wanted to learn how the Black and Latinx staff of a reconstituted school describe and understand success through their lived experiences, rather than through state exam outcomes. For my dissertation, I used a qualitative case study that explored the way one founding principal and six founding teachers at a reconstituted school, the Bronx Promise Academy (a pseudonym), described and understood success for their school community and for their Black and Latinx students. I used counterstorytelling, a methodology based on Critical Race Theory, that centered the understanding of success on the experiences and stories of the Black and Latinx staff member participants of my study. After using purposeful sampling to identify the participants, I conducted one interview with each participant and one focus group with all of the participants. Overall, I found that the principal’s counterstory to student success had a direct influence on how her staff viewed the importance of high-stakes exams and understood success for their school community and their students. First, I found that the principal, Ms. Jean-Baptiste, had a counterstory to the traditional view of student success that her teachers also adopted. Ms. Jean-Baptiste and the six teacher participants believed that student success should not be based on high-stakes testing outcomes but instead should be based on students developing real-world skills and navigational capital, or the ability to adapt and thrive in a variety of situations. These skills involved perseverance, critical thinking, and independency. Next, I also found that Ms. Jean-Baptiste’s counterstory for school success prioritized building a strong culture at the Bronx Promise Academy that fulfilled the needs of her students rather than raising test scores. Her counterstory was shared by all of the teacher participants. Since their students went through a traumatic experience at a closing school, the participants considered themselves successful because they collaboratively constructed unique routines, traditions, and structures for their school community. They considered this new culture as a success because they said it provided students with a sense of community, care, and joy that they needed in order to succeed academically at school. My findings, on both this holistic view of success and the use of counterstorytelling, have implications for district and school leaders, policymakers, and education leadership researchers.

This study examined the effects of one particular piece of legislation on California's nonclassroom-based charter schools. In 2001, the California State Legislature passed SB 740, a bill designed in part to limit funding of nonclassroom-based charter schools to instances when the State Board of Education has made a determination of funding. The determination of funding is based on prescribed spending levels as outlined in regulations governing the implementation of SB 740. The literature on charter schools contains very few studies on charter school expenditure levels. This study provided an important addition to the literature on charter school spending. This study's literature review included such topics as charter school autonomy and charter school accountability, home schooling, school choice, charter school legislation, policy implementation, and charter school spending patterns. 10 administrators, who were in nonclassroom-based leadership positions before, during, and after the implementation of SB 740, were interviewed. The researcher compiled and analyzed the results to find themes that emerged from the administrators' insights. Results and conclusions included: (a) the respondents perceived that SB 740 successfully purged the non-classroom based charter school movement of many schools that were engaged in abusive fiduciary practices, (b) the respondents thought the regulations were overly constricting, especially in the areas of facilities costs and reserve funds, (c) the respondents voiced concern that small schools attempting innovative practices and programs may have been forced to close due to their inability to meet the SB 740 funding determination guidelines, and (d) unexpected consequences of SB 740 included division between the ranks of classroom-based and nonclassroom-based charter schools, the formation of a nonclassroom-based advocacy group, and increased teacher salaries.

In the opening decades of the 21st Century, a movement towards parental choice in public schools has taken flight. One of the choices becoming more readily available to parents of young children is charter schools. Charter schools are expanding across the United States and Central Florida is representative of this growth. Parents are faced with more choices as they make decisions on their children's educational future than ever before making the availability of quality, accurate information about local schools paramount. While scholarly work on charter schools, the effects of media coverage on public opinion, and how parents make choices for their children exists, in many cases the research offers inconclusive results and rarely was there an attempt to connect all three. This paper, written from a parent's perspective, analyzes research, newspaper articles, interviews, and surveys of Central Florida's media outlets, public school representatives, and parents of young children to determine the types of information on charter schools available to parents of young children in Central Florida. The purpose of this thesis will be to investigate the information available to parents when considering a charter school for their young children by comparing the stated opinions of the local media, district school boards, and the charters themselves. It also identifies who is responsible for disseminating this information, and how the parents choose to gather and use this information.

The advent of charter schools has been one of the biggest reform initiatives in the history of schooling in the US: charters have significantly altered the landscape of many of our country’s largest public-school systems (Bracey, 2002; Hassel, 2009; Hill, 2006). Recent studies have examined a number of aspects of charter school leadership; however, there has been little research on charter school chief executive officers (CEO). The CEO is a relatively new role that oversees the entire charter school or network and is almost always independent of the principal. This mixed-methods study examined the organizational dynamics of Philadelphia Charter School CEOs by using a survey, personal interviews, and quantitative data analysis to obtain information regarding all CEOs of Philadelphia. Interviews were focused on the CEO job role and day-to-day duties, CEO successes and struggles, and what prior experiences prepared CEOs for this role. The quantitative findings show two correlations: suggesting that male CEOs and CEOs of stand-alone schools are in charge of schools with higher school performance. Five common themes emerged across CEOs during interviews: loneliness, overconfidence, under preparedness, non-traditional career path, and having a prior work experience in the field of education was crucial to success. Lastly, it was discovered that certifications and prior education experience were not commonplace for current CEOs, 19 of the 64 CEOs in this study did not have prior education experience. / Educational Leadership

This study elucidates the history and program structure of an urban out of school time program designed for liberatory education for K-16 students. This study aims to define the Catto Freedom Schools Way and examine the extent to which it is being followed at the Hamer-Still Freedom Charter School. This study contributes to what we know about school design and ethnic studies as a strengths-based approach to educating youth of color. A review of the literature reveals that Freedom Schools have been in existence since African people came to the Western hemisphere and The Freedom Schools Way has meant different things to each entity over that time (Countryman, 2006; Du Bois, 1903; Garvey, 1923; Payne & Strickland, 2008; Williams, 2005; Woodson, 1933). Findings suggest that The Catto Freedom Schools Program (CFSP) Way is a combination of two complimentary elements: learning about Black history and culture (Asante, 1980; Carr, 2009; Diop, 1996; Gay, 2000; King, 2005; Murrell, 2002; Myers, 1997; Nobles, 1976) and chain mentorship (Andrews, 2001; Olson, 2008; Welty, 2000). Learning about Black history and culture consists of reading and writing about Black history and culture and assuming African values and customs. Chain mentorship consists of looking up to older people for direction and guidance as well as stepping up in service to give younger people guidance. Hamer-Still Freedom Charter School (HSFCS), a school designed on the CFSP model, is experiencing the most success in implementing reading and writing about African history and culture and having accessible adult role models on whom the students, also known as Servant Leader Scholars, can rely on for academic and personal support. In order for HSFCS to embody the CFSP Way, it needs to strengthen opportunities for its students to step up and provide service for younger children as well as fully develop a spirit of positive peer pressure throughout its upper school. / Urban Education