Inside charter schools : the paradox of radical decentralization / edited by Bruce Fuller.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Fuller, Bruce.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Charter schools--United States.

Charter schools.

Schools--Decentralization--United States.

Schools.

Education and state--United States.

Education and state.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (304 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Deepening disaffection with conventional public schools has inspired flight to private schools, home schooling, and new alternatives, such as charter schools. Barely a decade old, the charter school movement has attracted a colorful band of supporters, from presidential candidates, to ethnic activists, to the religious Right. At present there are about 1,700 charter schools, with total enrollment estimated to reach one million early in the century. Yet, until now, little has been known about the inner workings of these small, inventive schools that rely on public money but are largely independent of local school boards. Inside Charter Schools takes readers into six strikingly different schools, from an evangelical home-schooling charter in California to a back-to-basics charter in a black neighborhood in Lansing, Michigan. With a keen eye for human aspirations and dilemmas, the authors provide incisive analysis of the challenges and problems facing this young movement. Do charter schools really spur innovation, or do they simply exacerbate tribal forms of American pluralism? Inside Charter Schools provides shrewd and illuminating studies of the struggles and achievements of these new schools, and offers practical lessons for educators, scholars, policymakers, and parents.

Contents:

Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction: Growing Charter Schools, Decentering the State: BRUCE FULLER; 1 The Public Square, Big or Small? Charter Schools in Political Context: BRUCE FULLER; 2 We Hold on to Our Kids, We Hold on Tight: Tandem Charters in Michigan: PATTY YANCEY; 3 An Empowering Spirit Is Not Enough: A Latino Charter School Struggles over Leadership: EDWARD WEXLER AND LUIS A. HUERTA; 4 Selling Air: New England Parents Spark a New Revolution: KATE ZERNIKE; 5 Diversity and Inequality: Montera Charter High School: AMY STUART WELLS, JENNIFER JELLISON HOLME, AND ASH VASUDEVA

6 Losing Public Accountability: A Home Schooling Charter: LUIS A. HUERTA7 Teachers as Communitarians: A Charter School Cooperative in Minnesota: ERIC ROFES; 8 Breaking Away or Pulling Together? Making Decentralization Work: BRUCE FULLER; Notes; Contributors; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-674-03742-1

OCLC:

923111182