Charter schools?

[brit]

Obviously all schools are different, but I'm interested if anyone has any experience with charter schools. DD was accepted through a lottery into a new charter here. Charter schools are really new here in Vegas and I don't have any friends that have personal experiences. We spent about an hour and a half at the school today talking with teachers and administrators and both DH and I really liked it. We always thought we'd send DD to the private school I went to, but think this might be a good option.

[Becca]

Charter schools were 'born' here in MN, and I work with them frequently.

The good schools are AWESOME. And the bad schools, are awful. But you know as soon as you walk in the door what kind of school it is.

Every state sets their charters up differently, but from an educational perspective, I love how charters are set-up here. (from a financial perspective, I see a lot of money wasted on bad and failed schools)

When the time comes, DD will go to a charter school.

Do you have any specific questions, or are you just looking for a gut feel to see if a charter is a truly viable option?

[brit]

I guess the whole concept is just very foreign to me (us). I'm trying to do as much research as possible. We really liked everything we saw today, unfortunately, since she'll only be in kinder, I suppose we won't really know if it's the right fit for her until she goes for the year.

[brit]

Also, since the schools are all so new, there really isn't any way to measure their success yet, which makes me nervous.

[doctorsbaby]

I have a couple friends that have their kids in charter schools but we are in the north part of town, they all seem to like them. A few other have kids that start school in the fall, if they didn't get into the charter they wanted, they were going to homeschool.

[imojoebunny]

They are pretty common here, and have been around for at least 10+ years. They vary widely. Here they are set up, usually by parent groups initially, because some of our schools are nothing more than wharehouses for kids, until they drop out. The charters don't have to try hard to do a better job than the public schools here in a lot of areas. They are usually better than the local school because they require some parent involvement and interest in education, so they self select the better students. I have a lot of friends who live in bad districts who send their kids to charters. Most of them still have to be very involved, but at least they don't have to move and their kids won't be introduced to drugs before 4th grade.

[brit]

Jan 9, 2013 19:55:39 GMT -5 imojoebunny said:

They are pretty common here, and have been around for at least 10+ years. They vary widely. Here they are set up, usually by parent groups initially, because some of our schools are nothing more than wharehouses for kids, until they drop out. The charters don't have to try hard to do a better job than the public schools here in a lot of areas. They are usually better than the local school because they require some parent involvement and interest in education, so they self select the better students. I have a lot of friends who live in bad districts who send their kids to charters. Most of them still have to be very involved, but at least they don't have to move and their kids won't be introduced to drugs before 4th grade.

Yikes, I couldn't imagine having to send my kid to a place I knew was horrible and not have the resources to send them someplace else.

[kaylie]

I worked for a youth development non profit in NYC that launched it's own charter school. It's been around for about five years now and has been an amazing success in a neighborhood with very poor public school options. Each class is 30 kids, but there are two certified teachers per class. One is regular ed and one is either special ed or ESL. They can meet a variety of needs in each classroom. The standardized test scores that they're getting back are impressive.

I would look into the organization backing the school - usually there is one. Do they have a mission statement that makes sense and are they led by people who seem qualified?

[phunluvin82]

It really depends on the specific school and the person/people/organization running it. They can run the gamut from being just as bad or worse than failing public schools...to just as good or better than successful private schools.

I worked in a charter for 5 years and it was a struggle. Any improvement over the public school it replaced was small and slow. All the same issues that plagued the school when it was a public school did not just disappear because it turned charter.

My sister works in a charter in another state that is a fantastic school. It was built from the ground up (was not converted from an already existing public school) and has sound, research based educational philosophies and ambitious curriculum. It is highly rated, has a good reputation, and quite a long waiting list.

I think the more info you can get your hands on about the specific school, the better you'll be able to determine if it's one of the 'good ones.'

[Deleted]

I would imagine this depends a lot on where you live. Where I'm at, it seems like they are really good or really bad.

[brit]

Good to know. I'll take a look at the organization that backs them (Academia LLC), as well as their board and by laws. Thanks for the info everyone!