If you would like to find out more about charter schools in your state, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is a good place to start. This national organization keeps tabs on all the statistics for funding, performance, and start ups of new charter schools in each state.
These are schools of choice, but they are public schools, featuring innovative curriculum and freedom from some of the regulations found in regular public schools. For a charter school to be successful, parents, teachers and students must be clear about it’s mission, focus on curriculum, goals, needs of the community and ways to assess success. A charter school can often seem like a work in progress – and indeed, the best of them continue to always be growing, developing, evaluating, evolving.
Quality is the main focus – successful charter schools realize that just a marginal improvement over local schools that are inadequate is not enough. Excellence and high academic goals are the primary motivators.
Accountability is crucial. Schools are held to the standards and goals set forth in writing when the school is organized. Failure to meet these goals within a specified time frame can mean revocation of the charter.
Well organized and planned charter schools can be great places to start a teaching career, if professional support and mentorship is in place. I know of some young teachers in New York City who prefer the smallness of their charter school which focuses on literacy and math competence. It is not that the students are so easy – the quality of the experience for these young teachers is knowing that their plans are reviewed, the principal or head teacher makes suggestions, visits the class frequently, gives praise along with suggestions, and curriculum is developed through faculty teamwork. They love having the opportunity to actually teach, with positive results, in the inner city.
Charter schools depend on a high degree of parental and community partnerships, and are responsive to local needs. They are one component of viable school choices particularly for those areas where student’s abilities are compromised by poor quality and private education is not an option.