Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

Abstract

State charter school policy is influenced through a collaboration between advocacy groups and state legislators. Charter school advocacy groups have an inherent bias toward deregulation and autonomy. Two advocacy groups, the Center for Education Reform (CER) and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), each conduct annual analyses on state charter school laws using their own model charter law as the comparator. Each group has developed a rubric of indicators with sub-scores which combine to form an overall state score. Higher scores indicate a closer adherence to the advocacy groups model charter law. The charter school sector in the United States has been embroiled in accusations of illegal activities since at least 1997. This study looked into allegations of illegal activity within the charter school sector from 2013– 2017 and examined them for the nature, conversion, timeframe, and monetary impact. On average, alleged illegal activities went undetected for 5.1 years before being discovered with an associated monetary impact of approximately $4.5 million. The role of CER and NAPCS charter school law scores was examined to determine if a relationship existed between the state scores and allegations of illegal activity. State scores were compared for each year using tests for independent measures. The CER state scores were found to be significantly higher for states with allegations of illegal charter school activity. Logistic regression performed on the 2017 CER state score indicated that it was a significant predictor of states having allegations of illegal activities within their charter school sector. The NAPCS state scores were not found to be significantly related to allegations of illegal activities within the charter school sector.

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