What Makes a Charter School a Charter School?

 This model arises in the United States, where many states have enacted laws that allow the development of this type of school with the intention of better meeting the needs of those students who are not adequately served by traditional schools. Thus, many charter schools in mesa az were started to reduce existing performance gaps by improving the educational opportunities available to certain segments of the student population or to promote both specific social skills and academics.

Charter schools represent a fast-growing option for choice and responsibility in public education. These schools are public, financed with the same funds as traditional public schools. They are not private schools, nor are they affiliated with any religion or ideology. They are schools that have a contract with the Competent Education Administration to operate as a private school for a specified period of time (generally 3 to 5 years).

During the contract period, charter schools have a lot of freedom and do not have to abide by all the regular public school’s rules. In exchange for this freedom, these schools have to show good results during the contract period. If not, the Educational Administration may decide not to renew it.

This educational model has been the main option available to those who wanted to teach an independent theme-based curriculum, implement their own organizational model, and create small schools with few students and personalized instruction. Its general objective, from the pedagogical point of view, is to increase the student’s educational achievements compared to those achieved in normal public schools, which implies creating new learning opportunities for all of them.

 

 

Among its most important features are:

· Openness to all students. They cannot apply discriminatory norms for their student’s admission. By design, many charter schools serve specific populations of students that are not well served by traditional public schools. Examples of agendas in these types of schools include serving difficult-to-educate students, teaching a multicultural curriculum, and fostering a curriculum that emphasizes conflict resolution in addition to other social skills.

 

· Experimental character. Charter schools are intended to be pioneering, innovative, and committed to improving public education.

 

· High degree of deregulation. They are free from many of the regulations that the normal public school must conform to. They can establish their own curriculum, calendar and schedules, hire their own staff, determine their organization, management and evaluation procedures, and freely dispose of their budget.

 

· Strong demand for accountability. In return for the high degree of deregulation they enjoy, charter schools are held directly accountable for their results.

 

· Opportunity regarding its creation based on the student’s needs of the. Charter schools need to justify the need for their creation and request it from the corresponding instances of the Educational Administration.

 

· Schools a la carte. It is intended that these schools formulate their own differentiated educational offer, to become schools of choice.

 

· Its size. Charter schools have been the solution for those who have wanted to create small charter schools. The small size of the campus facilitates more individual instruction and closer relationships between teachers and students, while providing a sense of collaboration and collective responsibility among staff, intensifying the effects of teacher resignations. Being small allows the curriculum to be tailored for the individual focus of the school.

 

From a pedagogical point of view, charter schools are usually awarded the competence to determine:

· The range of ages to be admitted and the academic levels to be taught.

· The institutional vision/mission, its general objectives and its learning goals.

· The curriculum.

· Instruments for evaluating academic performance.

· The school calendar and schedule.

· The school building for its location.

· Mandatory application of regulations on cleaning and safety of the school building.

· The procedures for the student’s admission.

· The disciplinary procedures related to the behavior of the students and staff of the center.

· The organizational structure and management.

· Management team.

 

From an economic point of view, charter schools generally have recognized autonomy to:

· Determine the personnel policy.

· Hire its own teachers.

· Contract services and equipment.

· Receive funds from various sources.

 

We are sure that at our charter high schools in mesa az, your children will receive a quality education.