ABSTRACT School accountability is an issue that the American public has been confronted with since the publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983. This report commissioned by then Secretary of Education T. H. Bell offered a critical assessment of the American education system. During the past three decades following its publication, education practitioners, policy makers, parents and others have sought to promote strategies that they believe would improve the quality of public education. One widely used strategy throughout our country is charter schools. Charter school advocates relish the fact that their use provided for greater school choice, autonomy and local control. This paper is designed to offer a glimpse into how a small central Florida town used charter schools to improve the quality of its public schools. This limited quantitative study had two main foci. First, it sought to determine the correlation between student demographic factors and achievement for six schools, three charter elementary schools and three comparable non-charter elementary schools. Second, it sought to determine if there were mean differences in student achievement data for the two school types. The correlation test that were conducted in this study paired student demographic factors and achievement as well as school climate factors and achievement with the two school types. The findings showed there were no correlations between an entire cluster of demographic factors (Title I, disability, minority status, and English language learner) or school climate factors (teacher/administrator quality and school discipline) and reading and math achievement for the two school types. However, an examination of some individual demographic and school culture factors showed a different result. Several examples of these findings included the correlation between charter school reading and school culture/climate-percentage- out of field teachers (p=.023, at p<.05) and Percentage of new administrators (p=.003, sig. at p<.01); the correlation between charter school math and school demographic factors-Percentage of ESE student (p=.037, p<.05; the correlation between TPS reading and student demographic factors-Percentage of Title I students (p=.006, sig. at p<.01). The result of the independent sample t-test showed charter schools out performing non-charter schools in both reading and math. The mean difference for the two groups were deemed not significant for reading (p= .134 when p< .05) However for math the difference was significant (p= .03 when p< .05). While the results are limited, focusing on the three elementary schools within the charter school system and three traditional public schools in the same district, the findings provide evidence that the town's commitment to improving the quality of their education system has not been in vain. The results of this study could be used as a foundation for the development of future studies which have as a central focus the improvement of the academic programs for this and other charter school systems. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education. / Summer Semester, 2014. / July 15, 2014. / Accountability, Assessment, Charter Schools, Parental Choice, School Choice, Traditional Public Schools / Includes bibliographical references. / Marytza Gawlik, Professor Directing Dissertation; Elizabeth Jakubowski, Committee Member; Robert A. Schwartz, Committee Member; Carol Herrington, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_254444 |
| Contributors | Jackson, Jesse L. (authoraut), Gawlik, Marytza (professor directing dissertation), Jakubowski, Elizabeth (committee member), Schwartz, Robert A. (committee member), Herrington, Carol (committee member), Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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