What is a Charter School?

Basically Charter schools are...

·        Innovative public schools

·        Designed by educators, parents or civic leaders

·        Open and attended by choice

·        Free from most rules and regulations governing conventional public schools and accountable for results.

History

The idea of Charter schools came about from Ray Budde, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. At the time the bases of charter schools was a school that was free to the public and had no religious affiliation and was ran like a private business. Charter Schools have been popping up since legislation put the law into effect in 1988. Forty of the Fifty States have signed into laws to allow Charter Schools to have federal funding. Now over four thousand charter schools are being run all over the United States and many of these are in urban areas where people believe that the needs of the student are not being met. These schools have to be independent from public schools, so they do not have many of the same requirements that public schools have and they also have to be accountable for the student’s intellectual growth.

Demographics

Charter Schools traditionally have a low student population, which helps with small class size. Charter schools are commonly found in urban areas and about 54% of students in all the country’s charter schools are on free and reduced lunch and about half are considered “at risk”. Charter Schools racial demographics very with the areas. Some schools like The Art and Technology Public Charter School in Washington D.C. have 98% African American students, but most schools are more racially diverse. There is a low percentage of learners with exceptionality in Charter Schools, but the U.S Charter School website states that Charter Schools around the country are trying to include these students into the schools.

Funding

The state government decides the amount of government funding a school will receive. Grant writing has become popular among Charter Schools and many get the government funding they need through Grants. This is decide through the per pupil voucher that are designated for the specific district for each student. Funding is also provided through private companies.

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http://www.uscharterschools.org/pub/uscs_docs/sp/index.htm

This web page shows a map of the states that have passed charter schools into legislation. It also has the function of finding information about each state and the charter schools within them. Each state has information about their legislation policies, local news about the states charter schools, and resources for the parents and teachers of future charter school student.

Kipp Schools

The Knowledge Is Power Program

History

Kipp schools began in 1994 and now have over 66 schools in 19 states over the United States. Two inner city teachers from Houston, Texas after completing Teach For America started the two of the first Kipp Academy in Houston and the South Bronx. Now 95 percent of Kipp alumni went onto college preparatory high schools.

Demographics

This year there was 16,000 students enrolled into the schools and the majority of the schools services fifth through eighth grade students. Over 90 percent of these students are Hispanic and African American and more than 80 percent are eligible for free and reduced lunch.

Funding

Kipp schools are funded through the KIPP Foundation. The co-founders of Gap Inc structured the foundation. The foundation trains professionals and helps to support and monitor the quality of the network.

http://www.kipp.org/

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Richard Allen Academy

History

The Richard Allen Academy began in 1999 and has five schools around the Dayton and Tri State area. One of the schools is located in Hamilton, Ohio. The name of the school came Bishop Richard Allen. A former slave that started a Independent Free African Society.

Demographics

The schools very from kindergarten to eighth grade and now have over 1,000 students. The schools are located in urban areas. All of the campuses met their Adequate Yearly Progress even though only 37 out of the 41 categories met the requirements.

Funding

The Richard Allen Academy gets 83% of its funding from state Foundations and 12% from Federal CCIP. Only 1% of the funding comes from state grants. 

http://www.richardallenschools.com/index.htm

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Summit Academy

Mission Statement

“Summit Academy Schools build hope, success and well-being through advocacy and education for children with special needs.”

History

Summit Academy is a nonprofit charter school. The first summit academy was opened in 1999 and now there are three Summit schools located in the tri-state and surrounding areas. The schools adhere to the Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence. Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence believes that no student is necessarily more intelligent than another, but that one may be stronger in different areas. The children may learn through different approaches.

Demographics

Summit Academy is mainly populated with students that are dealing with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Asperger’s Disorder; 95% of the students are classified as Special Education students. Many of the students’ families also live at or below the poverty line. The school has students do many hands on activities and gives them outlets of dealing with their disorders. The school has a therapeutic education model, which teaches student’s therapeutic martial arts, social skill training and many other programs that help students’ function with their disability.

Funding

The school is funded through government funding and voucher distribution. The school also accepts charitable donations from community members.

http://www.summitacademies.com/ 

Pros

• Designed to give families more choices of schools for their children to attend
• Studies have shown that compared to students in the nearest regular public school, charter school students are 4 percent more likely to be proficient in reading and 2 percent more likely to be proficient in math (The Center for Educational Reform. 2007).
• Also compared to students in the nearest regular public school with a similar racial composition, charter students are 5 percent more likely to be proficient in reading and 3 percent more likely to be proficient in math (The Center for Educational Reform. 2007)

Cons

• Small sizes and limited numbers enable charter schools the ability to provide public school options to a limited number of families – this leads to fairness and equality in the acceptance of students for enrollment being biased towards the more favored families of the community (Jan McComb. March 2002)
• Charter schools are too limited in scope in order to adequately provide pressure to the entire public school system for reform.

Information retreived from

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1038682/the_pros_and_cons_of_charter_school_pg2.html?cat=4

The following websites are just a few sources with great information on charter schools.

http://www.uscharterschools.org/pub/uscs_docs/index.htm

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1038682/the_pros_and_cons_of_charter_school.html?cat=4

http://www.schoolsk-12.com/Ohio/Cincinnati/Charter-schools.html

http://www.edweek.org/rc/issues/charter-schools/

http://www.edreform.com/index.cfm?fuseAction=section&pSectionID=14&cSectionID=34

http://www.kipp.org/

http://www.richardallenschools.com/index.htm

http://www.summitacademies.com/

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1038682/the_pros_and_cons_of_charter_school_pg2.html?cat=4