I really enjoyed this article about charter schools, which helps to point out a few things: funding and teacher motivation can have huge impacts on the success of students, and that the rest of the public school system can probably learn a few bits from the successful charter schools around. For example:
At Friendship’s Blow Pierce middle school in Northeast, parents are asked to sign a statement promising that they will get their children to school on time each day, make sure they wear the uniform, complete homework on time, and attend classes on Saturdays and in the summer if their grades fall below a C average. The parents also agree to attend conferences and school events.
via Charter Schools Make Gains On Tests – washingtonpost.com.
The use of technology in the classroom (even at the preschool and kindergarten level) is pretty astounding, but it certainly helps that some of the schools are getting sizable grants from major foundations. It will be interesting to see what funding, staffing and pedagogical innovations these schools can come up with in the near future. Certainly mainstream education can learn a thing or two from KIPP and it’s peers.