| The main purpose of this dissertation is to empirically examine under what conditions Colorado's school districts more actively implement the state charter school law or why some of Colorado's school districts more actively deliver charter school services to their residents compared to other school districts. To answer this research question, this dissertation targets Colorado's school districts and constructs the two equation models including 13 hypotheses, which are created by support of the four theoretical approaches---policy diffusion, policy entrepreneur, policy interest group, and policy network models---and school district characteristics.;The dependent variable in each equation model is operationalized by the different measurements while each equation model embraces the same 13 independent variables. To estimate both dependent variables and independent variables in these two equation models, the author makes his own unique cross-sectional dataset, which was completed by conducting a survey and collecting secondary data. Meanwhile, this dataset is analyzed by the multiple ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis among several multivariate statistical analysis techniques.;The analyzed results of the both equation models commonly reveal that the mimetic diffusion, policy entrepreneur, and policy network factors play significant roles in answering the research question. Based on the three statistically significant explanatory factors, the dissertation concludes that as existence of the three explanatory factors---neighboring school districts with previous experience for charter schools, policy entrepreneurs, and policy networks---increases, Colorado's school districts are more likely to implement the state charter school law.;Regarding future studies, first, this dissertation suggests that magnet schools could be a more proper measurement to operationalize the market-based education tool (MBET) variable to improve this study's validity. Second, the dissertation addresses that a political characteristic factor will be a potential explanatory variable that can provide this dissertation's research question with a good answer. Finally, the dissertation proposes that using a qualitative method could be a good way to obtain more accurate and in-depth results. |
