Published: October 1, 2008

Could Charters Really Be the Answer?

In the Teacher Leaders Network discussion group, “Southeast Teacher” wrote:

The past few years have seen something of a sea-change in my thinking towards charter schools. In my state, charters have been around awhile and are often hotly debated. I've always been opposed to them, primarily because I saw them as a not-so-subtle attempt to embarrass the public school system. Combine that with envy over the lack of red-tape, and it was enough to make me think that charters were the enemy.

But after reading through the book Disrupting Class this summer, I started to think of charters differently. The authors argue that charters can be hothouses for experimentation, identifying instructional practices that work which could then be tailored to traditional schools. They could also serve as customized learning centers for those students who haven't...