The charter school movement in the United States grew from a handful of schools in Minnesota in 1991 to more than 4,500 schools in 41 states as of December 2008 and to more than 5,400 schools serving more than 1.7 million students in 2010. This proliferation has increased the opportunities for academic performance in those 41 states and for students who experienced choice within the education reform movement. As of January 2012, there are 99 charter schools in Illinois, which represents less than 2% of the total charter schools authorized in the United States. Eighty-seven are located in Chicago. This investigation looked at 26 states that are considered "procharter" and that have "pulled out the stops" to get the charter school movement rolling (at least in terms of the number of charter schools). What has been done in these states can be replicated in Illinois in order to increase its number of charter schools. This qualitative study used archival data to contrast the 25 procharter states, plus Washington, DC, using a rubric developed by the Center for Education Reform (CER), which primarily used the number of charter schools as the main metric to determine an effective charter school approval process. This investigation identified at least two variables that existed in procharter states' approval processes that were absent in Illinois. First, these states passed positive charter school legislation. Second, they each developed at least two chartering authorizers. If Illinois were to mirror these procharter states or at least emulate the chartering process in Chicago, its leaders might find increased opportunities to authorize more charter schools. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]