Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Pisapia, John

Abstract

As our nation demands system-wide improvement, external providers are challenged to scale up educational reform efforts, to implement them more widely, more deeply, and more rapidly than in the past. Virtual high schools come at a time when public education is being challenged by mandates for new forms of educational choice and supplemental services. Replicating success of educational reforms on a large scale is a vexing issue. Failure to scale them up is accredited to the absence of a practical theory that accounts for the institutional complexities operating on changes of practice. This research developed such a practical theory gleaning attributes from Comprehensive School Reform, Diffusion of Innovation, and Leadership and Scale theories. The purpose of this study was to determine the attributes that contribute to the scalability of the virtual high school. Scalability was separated into two levels; a traditional notion of scaling up reforms, and the more contemporary idea of going to scale. The conceptual framework suggested that scalability was dependent upon the frequency of the attributes associated with these levels. Content analysis was conducted on N = 270 documents pertaining to virtual high schools. A validation subset of N = 137 documents on five specific virtual high schools was used. An attribute checklist assisted the coding, classifying 39 attributes into five mutually exclusive categories, along with seven contextual factors that potentially moderated scalability. Analysis on the validation subset produced similar findings to those of the universal sample set. A statistical model was developed that predicted a large amount (52 %) of the variation of scalability. When scaling up attributes are prevalent both in the innovation's design, the communication channels, and leadership capabilities then going to scale can be achieved O..er time. Specifically, virtual high schools should focus on three significant scaling up attributes: (a) offering quality curriculum aligned to high national/state standards, (b) creating networks with other virtual high school adopters, and (c) strong management, in order to go to scale. The development of a practical theory must include these attributes in order for the virtual high school to go to scale.

Extent

312 p.

Comments

College of Education|Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2007.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|College of Education

Identifier

FA00000661

Format

pdf

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