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Charter schools are public schools created as an
alternative to traditional public schools.They operate free from
many traditional district and state rules regarding curriculum,
hiring practices, and administration.Charter schools are most often
created by a group of teachers, parents, and community members.In
some states existing public or private schools, public or private
institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations or
governmental entities may also create a charter school.These
organizers must approach a sponsor, usually the local school
district, a non-local district, or a State Board of Education to
grant them charter status.This ‘charter’ serves as a
performance contract detailing the school’s mission, program,
goals for students served, methods of assessment, and ways to
measure success.Charter schools must demonstrate improvement in
student achievement to retain their status.In addition, these
schools are financially accountable to their sponsors, the parents
who choose them for their children, and the public that funds
them.As of 2003, charter school laws were present in 41 states and
the District of Columbia with schools
operating in 37 states.
Many charter schools have been developed that include
service-learning in their mission, as a primary instructional
strategy to improve student performance (see City on a Hill Charter
School in Boston -
http://www.cityonahill.org/).
Service-learning programs and charter schools both feature:
- Innovative and energetic teachers;
- Active collaboration among teachers, students and the
community;
- Alternative approaches to assessment, such as portfolios and
public display of work, to determine both individual student
success as well as school success;
- A focus on increasing student achievement and satisfaction in
school; and
- Involvement of community partners in the educational process
through school-based activities.
The following sources will provide you with more facts regarding
the creation, administration, and success of charter schools across
the nation as well as state specific information.
Web Resources
The League serves as a clearinghouse for information and
resources that charter school groups can draw upon, as a technical
support group, providing everything from legal advice to assistance
in writing a charter proposal, and as an advocate for the overall
charter schools movement.
The Resource Center helps increase student achievement and
graduation rates for children throughout Minnesota, as well as
providing free, high quality technical assistance to people wishing
to start and operate public charter schools.
NCSC provides an interactive website, a newsletter and journal,
and a compilation of funding resources and research.Their goals are
to improve public charter schools’ access to and
understanding of federal and private funds, to provide technical
assistance, mentoring and collaboration opportunities for public
charter schools across the nation, and to collect, catalog,
summarize, and disseminate research on issues relevant to public
charter school operations to administrators, parents, and any other
interested parties.
This site provides information regarding charter school
legislation, recent research, resources for parents, ideas for
those interested in starting charter schools, and resources for
obtaining grant and other financial
assistance.
Print Resources
- Anderson, Lee, Nancy Adelman, Kara Finnigan, Lynyonne
Cotton, Mary Beth Donnelly, and Tiffany Price. A Decade
of Public Charter Schools: Evaluation of the Public Charter Schools
Program: 2000-2001 Evaluation Report. Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Education, 2002.http://www.sri.com/policy/cep/choice/yr2.pdf
- Boyd, William Lowe, Debra Hare, and Joe Nathan.
"What Really Happened?" Minneapolis,
MN. Center for School Change, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of
Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, 2002.
http://www.hhh.umn.edu/img/assets/10160/wrhc.pdf
- Braunlich, Christian, and Melanie Looney, eds.
Charter Schools 2002: Results from CER’s Annual
Survey of America’s Charter
Schools. Washington, DC: The Center for Education
Reform, 2002.
- Colorado Department of Education. 1998-99 Colorado
Charter Schools Evaluation Study: The Characteristics, Status and
Performance Record of Colorado Charter Schools.
Denver: Author, 2000.
- Greene, J.P., G. Forster, and M.A. Winters.Apples to Apples, An Evaluation of Charter Schools
Serving General Student Populations. New York:
Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan Institute, 2003.
- Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department
of Education. The State of Charter Schools 2000:
National Study of Charter Schools.Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Education, 2000.
- Zimmer, Ron, Richard Buddin, Derrick Chau, Glenn Daley, Brian
Gill, Cassandra Guarino, Laura Hamilton, Cathy Krop, Dan McCaffrey,
Melinda Sandler, and Dominic Brewer. CharterSchool Operations and Performance: Evidence fromCalifornia. Santa Monica: The RAND Corporation,
2003.
http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1700/
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