The Diffusion of Charter School Policies Across the United States Open Access

Abstract

This thesis employs event history analysis to study of the rapid diffusion of a dramatic policy
innovation in the United States: the adoption of charter school policies by state legislatures.
Building upon a significant body of literature and drawing largely from data collected by Wong
and Langevin (2007), this study examines the influence of geographic, political, social, and
educational characteristics of a state on the likelihood of charter school policy adotion in a given
year. The results of this study support the existence of significant relationships between the
likelihood of state adoption and several explanatory variables: th passage of time, the prevalence
of private schools, and the diversity of the student population. Yet, only social and educational
characteristics of states, not political or geographic, had a significant impact on the likelihood of
the adoption of charter school policy. These findings have interesting theoretical consequences
concerning the state of contemporary education systems and the nature of democratic practice
within the states. The conclusion of this thesis discusses the theoretical implications of the
findings and offers direction for future studies of state educational policy and policy innovation
and diffusion.

Table of Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1
The Study of Policy Innovation and Diffusion ................................................................ 4
Event History Analysis and Innovation Adoption ............................................................ 5
Variables and Hypotheses ......................................................................................... 7

Analyses .............................................................................................................. 18

Results ................................................................................................................ 21
Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 26
References ........................................................................................................... 31
Tables.................................................................................................................. 35
Figures ................................................................................................................ 40
Appendix: Analytic Methodology ............................................................................... 43

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Mathematics and Political Science
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Political Science, General Education, Social Sciences
Keyword	charter schools school choice diffusion event history analysis educational policy policy innovation innovation
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Brown, Courtney, Emory University
Committee Members	Wilson, Andy, Emory University Powers, Victoria, Emory University Michael, Richard P, Emory University

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