Over the last several years we have been hearing a lot about charter schools and many of you have asked us about them so we want to answer the following questions for you:
What are charter
schools and what are they all about?
What is the difference
between charter schools, private schools, and public schools?
Are charter schools
working?
What are
charter schools and what are they all about?
Charter
schools are publicly funded, independently operated schools that are allowed to
operate with more autonomy than traditional public schools in exchange for
increased accountability. In 1991, Minnesota became the first state to pass a
charter school law. Today, 42 states and the District of Columbia have similar
laws.
Charter
schools are part of the state public education system and receive public
funding through the Basic Education Program. Charter schools are opened after
reaching an agreement with the local school district. Test scores and
performance results from charter school students count toward the results of
the school district they are a part of.
Charter
schools are able to improve learning for all students and help close the
achievement gap by encouraging the use of innovative teaching methods,
providing greater decision making authority to schools and teachers in exchange
for greater responsibility and student performance, creating new professional
opportunities for teachers, and affording parents meaningful, substantial
opportunities to participate in the education of their children.
What is
the difference between charter schools, private schools, and public schools?
Charter
schools do not charge tuition. They are free for students in their school
districts to attend.
Public school students are each allotted an amount of
funding through the Basic Education Program. When these students go to a public
charter school, this funding follows each student to their new school. Charter
schools demonstrate efficiency in utilizing these funds as, in addition to
standard costs of operating a school, charter schools in Tennessee are not
granted facilities or funding for facilities as traditional public schools are,
and spend an average of 20 percent of their budgets on facilities. When a
student leaves a traditional public school, the funds they take with them do
also leave that school, but through budgeting with a long-term outlook, school
systems can focus on funding quality educations for all students as opposed to
funding long-standing infrastructures.
While charter schools must follow too many of the laws and
regulations that govern traditional district public schools, they are freed
from the bureaucracy that often diverts a school’s energy and resources away
from the mission of the school. As a result, charter school leaders can focus
all of their efforts on settling and reaching high academic standards for their
students.
Are
charter schools working?
That is, are
students in charter schools learning as much or more than their counterparts in
district-run schools?
Charter
elementary and middle schools, on average, outperform their district-run
counterparts in math. For reading, the overall effect sizes for attending a
charter school are positive and about the same size as reported in the 2011
paper, but the effect sizes are no longer statistically significant.
At the high
school level, there is no overall significant effect (either positive or
negative) of charter schools, suggesting that charter high schools, on average,
serve their students about as well as their district-run counterparts.
KIPP schools
appear to have a particularly positive effect on both math and reading
achievement.
So we are all for
Charter schools and I say if you find one that works for you and meets the need
of your child enroll them in one today.
Nashville Learning Center
615-450-6652
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