For over twenty years, charter schools have become a way to experiment with education innovations and provide public school choice to where there was no choice before. The charter school concept has attracted interest and scrutiny from the education leaders all over the United States. While sometimes seen as a model for raising student achievement, charter schools are also are often misunderstood among the public. Despite the attention given to charter schools by President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the majority of Americans have little understanding of this growing sector of American education. Since charter schools are poised for another growth spurt, understanding what charter schools are, and especially whether they work, is crucial to making decisions for the future of education.
Just what are charter schools? It has become easy to get mixed up among all the information given and create the wrong ideas about what charter schools are as a whole. By definition charter schools are “publicly funded schools that operate outside the direct control of conventional school districts and are granted by a public body,” (Buddin & Zimmer, 2005). These schools begun gaining traction in the early 1990’s with the first one being opened up in Minnesota. There are over 5,000 charter schools nationwide with some being extraordinarily high performing but others are the opposite. It can be everything from students working at the computer at home to paid brick-and-mortar school where the kids wear uniforms and somewhere they even go to school on Saturdays and everything in between. Some charter schools are small founded by a group of parents or a single educator with a special focus such as; music, science, philosophy, etc. The most successful charter schools are called CMO’s, these are single organizations with many charter schools bound by a single vision and a single mission, but not all charter schools are the same. These ...