In the 1980s there was much debate on school reform in the United States. The charter school model was an idea for educational reconstruction. These charter schools insured the continuing improvement of schooling (Budde, 1989). In 1991, Minnesota was the first state to pass legislation to create a charter school. In 1992, Minnesota opened the doors of the first charter school in the United States (“Resources,” 2012). Since then, Charter schools have gained wide spread acceptance across the United States.
Charter schools are independent schools that are operated under a contract or charter approved by the state. These schools are tuition free and are funded by taxpayer dollars. However, charter schools do not have to follow the laws and regulations that traditional public schools do (“Charter schools,” 2011). In charter schools, teachers are given more opportunities to be innovative in the classroom, because they have less restrictions as to what is being taught. Most charter schools have specialized programs and can emphasize particular fields of study (“Charter schools,” 2011). Charter schools are still accountable for student accomplishment (“What are”, n.d.). Each charter school has specific goals that are set prior to the schools opening; if these goals are not met, then the school can be shut down. So even though these schools do not have to abide by state and federal laws and regulations they must prove they are providing a valuable education to their students.
There are five stages in the lifecycle of a charter school; generating ideas, planning the charter, preparing for teaching under the charter, teaching, and monitoring and evaluating. In the first step of generating ideas, a group of teachers must discuss the teachi...
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Frankenberg, Erica., & Chungmei, Lee. (2003). Charter schools and race: A lost opportunity for integrated education. Eric. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED478410
Joravsky, Ben. (2011). Stacking the odds in favor of charter schools: Charters unload problem students onto neighboring public schools - then reap the benefits. Retrieved from http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/chicago-charter-schools/Content?oid=3595045
Charter schools. (2011). Education Week. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/charter-schools/
Resources on Minnesota issues: Charter schools. (2012). Minnesota Legislative Reference Library. Retrieved from http://www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/issues/issues.aspx?issue=charter
What are public charter schools? N.d. Retrieved from http://www.publiccharters.org/About-Charter-Schools/What-are-Charter-Schools003F.aspx
Piper, Karin. “Education 101: What Is a Charter School?” Editorial. Examiner.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 July 2009.
While charter schools may seem appealing at first, further research shows that they, do, in fact have faults. Because of the high standards portrayed by charters, the brightest students in public schools often flee to charters in search of a better learning environment. Ironically, charter schools usually attract less-qualified teachers due to lower pay. Often, the result is many students eventually leaving the charter system, sometimes with a decrease in learning a...
She realized that choice and accountability were not the answer, but that curriculum and instruction were more viable solutions to America’s educational dilemma. Ravitch suggests that to abandon public schools is to abandon the institution that supports our concepts of democracy and citizenship and to the promise of American life (Ravitch, 2011, p. 12-14). The idea of school choice is rooted in Milton Friedman’s essay concerning the government’s role in education. Friedman asserted that society should support and contribute to the maximum freedom of the individual or the family. He maintained that the government should provide vouchers to help support parents financially on their children’s education, which parents could use at the school of their choosing; so long as the school met set standards. Therefore, this creation of choice would stimulate competition, which Friedman believed would increase the development and improvement of nonpublic schools, as well as, create a variety of school options (Ravitch, 2011, p. 115). As a result of the choice movement, the public received three versions of school choice: voucher schools, private schools, and charter schools. Each of these schools receives public funding, but do not operate as traditional public schools, and are not managed by a government agency (Ravitch, 2011, p. 121). Charter schools became the most popular choice of this new
Arguments For: Allows individuals or groups with innovative educational ideas to put them into practice without being unduly hampered by local or state bureaucracy. These schools may have unconventional hours, experiment with curricula, specialize in certain types of teaching or design programs tailored to a particular audience or community. Charter schools can introduce the ingredient of a measure of needed competition to the public schools. They may provide for more accountability because schools that work will be rewarded and those that do not will be changed or even closed.
In Meira Levinson’s case study, she asks if the reader would approve a legislation that intended to limit charter school expansion based on the attrition rates of that charter school. Both Pedro Noguera and Patricia Jehlen responded to Levinson’s case study. Noguera and Jehlen shared many views about this legislation such as the need for equity in the American education system, the role of charter schools as innovators and laboratories, and the effect charter schools have had on the students and the public schools near them. However, when drawing their final conclusions about charter schools and this legislation, they reach different solutions.
Although about 2 million American students now attend around 5,600 charter schools, I do not think this as beneficial to American students as charter school proponents claim. Despite all of the “perks” charters schools boast of and attract parents with, these schools do not necessarily perform better than average schools. Charter schools give an unfair advantage to stronger students, leaving students who struggle in weaker schools with fewer resources to help them. Perhaps most importantly, they are not available to all students, even though they are funded by public tax dollars. Although the motivations behind charter schools are admirable, they are not worth it. Our efforts in improving education are better spent investing in the public schools we already have.
United States Department of Education (1997). Overview of Charter Schools. Retrieved April 3, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://uscharterschools.org/pub/uscs_docs/gi/overview.htm
Charter schools are public schools, but can be a better option than traditional public schools for some students. By definition, a charter school is a publicly funded and privately run school under the charter of an educational authority. (2-4) A charter school is held to a different set of standards than most traditional public schools. This can often work towards their advantage because it allows them to try new and unique methods of educating children. And the education system could use some fresh ideas.
Are charter schools the right choice to the educational needs of our children? Charter schools are tuition free public schools created and operated by parents, organizations, and community groups to fill student’s educational needs. Charter schools consider educating their students as the priority, and identify how children’s learning needs are different from each other, so they came up with different ways on educating their students such as learning in small groups, or by participating in hands on learning. Along with their unique programs such as art, math, and science, charter schools are also the stronger academic choice for students. Parents should consider charter schools for their children’s education. “Charter schools are independent public schools allowed to innovate while being held accountable for improving student achievements” (Edie, 2012, p.1). Charter schools are the best choice for a child’s education.
In a nation dominated by capitalism and free trade, steps are being taken to turn the ability to learn and other education rights into commodities that can be manipulated and controlled by companies. Charter schools are public schools funded by state money, but not unionized; they also can be in the form of a traditional brick and mortar schoolhouse or an online school (Ravitch)(Molnar)(“Preface to 'Are Charter and Magnet Schools Good Alternatives for Students?’”). According to their proponents, charter schools allow parents more sway over their child’s education (Jacoby 77). A charter school proponent Jeff Jacoby states, “Their goal: to build the kind of school that used to be commonplace in America-one providing a rigorous, traditional, fact-based
Charter schools are public schools of choice, meaning that families choose them for their children. They operate with freedom from some of the regulations that are imposed upon school districts. Charter schools are accountable for academic results and upholding the promises made in their charters.
Public and charter schools may look to be the same, but charter schools differ in many ways and have an interesting origin that is often overlooked. The concept of charter schools began in New York City around the late 1980s and early 1990s by a man name Albert Shanker. They were originally created to be teacher-run schools that would provide education and services to students struggling in the traditional school system (Karp, 2013). These schools had operated outside the administrative bureaucracy and the big city school board. Shanker initial concern was that these small charter schools were dividing the district by serving a different population with unequal access as well as weakening the power of teacher union in negotiation over district-wide policies and regulations (Karp, 2013). Because of this Shanker withdrew his support, but charters had continued to grow and states were ...
Under NCLB policy, if a public school in the state standard exams results in consecutive unqualified scores, the school will be closed soon. Although the government gives parents more choices to accept the way of education, the students just can go to school in poor communities where the environment is bad. When there are charter schools, the public schools are going to be closed, the company or person can take it with permission, the foundation all comes from the government. The biggest difference between charter schools and public schools is that the charter schools have it own operating system, foundation and teachers.(Ravitch, Reign of Error, chapter 16, p157-160) There also are some disadvantages in charter schools, first is the quality gap, due to the quality of teaching which almost depends on teachers and principals. The second one is differentiation between races and classes. Some charter schools’ mission is serve minorities, such as African-American and Hispanic, because they want to save the nations’ culture. However, this limit of communication with other communities will result in a big gap objectively. Charter schools only pay attention to the scores and do not share their strategies to collaborate with public school, because they want more students to get high scores so they can enter to famous schools more than public
Charter schools are independent public schools of choice. Finn (1996) writes that researchers find that the best charter schools have near total independence to decide what and how to teach, whom to hire and how to use their resources, hours of operation, and how best to meet students' needs. One would assume that many charter schools are enjoying the flexibility and success of operating a school of choice. However, charters are also held accountable in a way that regular public schools are not. When a charter school experiences severe troubles, it usually faces severe consequences. To date, more than 200 failed or failing charter schools have been closed on fiscal, educational, and organization...
Charter schools are unique. They are open to any student who wishes to attend. Unlike traditional public schools, they are held accountable for achieving educational results or their school will be shut down. So they don’t have bureaucratic rules and many of the restrictions that other public schools have to deal with. It is a public school that is independently run and is granted flexibility in its operations. Charter schools are governed by each local community. The local community usually includes teachers and parents. As public schools, they are the only schools that allow parents or community groups to reinvent the public school system. For the majority of parents, they want a positive atmosphere that will encourage their child’s