What Makes Charter Schools Effective - Essay Example

Charter schools effectiveness What makes charter schools effective? Charter schools are those schools which receive the funds from the public but operate independently. They are established based on a contract held by charter authorizer and a private board for some years. In that case it will not be right to say that charter schools are private schools. The growth of charter schools has continued to be steady and nearly at a linear pace. This pace of growth is significant in giving charter schools an opportunity to play a central function in education reform over the subsequent few years. High position of charter schools and favorable enrollment growth is always in jurisdiction with the well established charter laws gives authority and independence of operation (Banks et al, 2011). This means that they operate independently in terms of academic administration and curriculum approaches. Demand for these schools has therefore remained strong. This implies that charter schools could grow extensively faster if the policy surroundings were more accommodating. However, independent authorizers consider charter schools answerable and these schools therefore remain academically and operationally well. As much as charter schools may not be seen to be accessible to all people, they are important and growing part of public school system. They provide chances to those who are not in a position to afford education fee. In regards to this, the question remains on what makes charter schools effective. There are various sources of literature which explain charter schools and attempt to answer the question of this research (Gleason et al 2010). This set of literature includes research by scholars and findings from international and national organizations. These try to give light on what makes charter schools effective. According to Rebarber and Zgainer (2014), increased use of compensation based on skills and innovative performance for teachers has seen charter schools scale the heights of good academic performance. This has made charter schools effective in provision of basic education. Good academic performance makes everyone to always be on the run to get admission into a charter school with the belief that they will definitely perform well. Banks et al (2011) postulates that charter schools also emphasize a well established challenging program. This stresses wide and profound understanding of academic content in various subjects like literature and mathematics. This also involves a substantial focus on technology and science. With this program, are likely to be more effective than public operated schools. The schools then become an option to many people. As a consequence, this makes charter schools to have a very high disadvantaged population of students from poor low-income earning families and minority students. Charter schools get less revenue and facilities funds like other traditional public schools (Gleason et al 2010). However, despite their inadequate resources, most charter schools provide absolute instructional time like longer school period to allow enough time for study which results in better performance among the students. This can be one of the factors that have led to the increased effectiveness of charter schools. Study shows that normal school day or year are not actually the real amount of time that teachers require to pass on the needed knowledge to students. Another factor that can be attributed to the increased effectiveness of charter schools is providing small but more personalized surrounding for learning to students. Rebarber and Zgainer (2014) posit that charter schools allow educators to create innovative environments of learning in order to get increased financial and academic liability. Provision of friendly and relaxing environment is known to provide high concentration of the mind when studying. Therefore, when charter schools provide this to their students, their performance is likely to be good. The effectiveness of charter schools also depends on the management practices. Good management that involves cost efficiency, quality leadership and fiscal accountability improves achievements and performance of students (Schneider and Buckley 2003). This is because poor management skills amount to poor results. These schools also have standard-based curricula and high expectations. This ensures that schools’ curriculum is in alignment with the standards required by the state. Then, the students will be receiving relevant knowledge and skills which are also considered to be essential. They therefore, by all means work to maintain good students’ performance always working to spot weaknesses of students in order to prevent poor grades. Charters are much like a commercial venture. In that case, principals and other leaders in the charter should have high-quality business skills to make best of the freedom they are given in the charter (Gleason et al 2010). This is based on the fact that greatly improved charters tend to have well developed entrepreneurial skills and business setting. An effective charter school should be in a position to go beyond the implementation of educational regulations and sort out themselves to carry out other activities out of the field of academic curriculum. These can activities enable them to channel resources and get funds to supplement the inadequate facilities from the public. The effectiveness of charter can also be attained by hiring smart teachers on the basis of goo academic records and experience on any field related to the subject they are hired to teach (Izumi 2008). This will avoid acquisition of teacher who simply owns nothing but regular teaching credential. This helps build the capacity of teaching in the charter schools and meets the requirement of qualified personnel in any institution that is bound to perform well. Teachers with good skills are in a position to understand what is likely to work and what will not work for the performance of their students. Testing students often and having relevant tools to identify weaknesses of individual students makes operations of charter schools effective (Izumi 2008). This is known to improve the process of learning for students. When students are regularly assessed on their studies they get grounds on how to improve on their areas of weakness and eventually succeed in their studies. Using teaching methods that have been proved to be capable of improving students’ performance in charter schools are bound to make them effective (Schneider and Buckley 2003). Research shows that teaching methods are not the same; some are better than others when it is about increasing performance of students. In that case, any teaching method that is to be applied in a school should be effective to foster good results in the school. These methods are such with clearly defined goals, handing in of organized assignments and giving students clear and good explanation on any topic of study. Banks et al (2011) suggest that a good learning process should entail asking of questions by both the students and the teacher to ensure that the students understand the subject matter well. Students should also be given a chance to practice what they learn. This enhances high retention of knowledge acquired in class on any particular subject. Therefore, any charter school which does not consider a relevant teaching method is bound to operate ineffectively. Finally, visiting classrooms regularly by the principal to ensure accountability in the classrooms also makes charter schools effective. Apart from having good teaching methods, good management skills among others, school principals should be aware of what goes on in the classrooms. This works to ensure that any issue that is bound to disable learning process in class is corrected in good time. Having mentioned about charter schools and what makes them effective, it is clear that those in charge of charter schools operation should learn and understand the practices and rules that lie behind the success of personal charter schools. Another fact is that charter schools operate on environment that insists on accountability. In that case starting charter schools may proof to be hard. It is therefore advisable that more weight is put on establishing and operating charter schools of elevated quality which will be efficient to advance the performance of students. Based on the fact that charter schools are funded by the public, it is important that they are granted fair and equal support as the traditional public schools. Charter schools operate on open admission. Any student who can access the charter school is free to join the school anytime. This sees a great increase in the population of the school. It will thus be necessary that the school gets facilities funding t accommodate the growing population. Building a culture of good performance reinforces confidence of students in their personal abilities makes a good tool to motivate the entire school fraternity. References Banks, Angel, Candica Bodkin and Jennifer Heissel. 2011. Charter Schools That Work: Policies & Practices of Effective High-Poverty Charters. Raleigh, NC: NC Department Of Public Instruction. Gleason, Philip, Melissa Clark, Christina C. Tuttle and Emily Dwoyer. 2010. The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts: Final Report (NCEE 2010-4029). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Izumi, Lance T. 2008. What Works: Inside Model Charter Schools. Lincoln, IL: Center on Innovation & Improvement. Rebarber Ted and Alison C. Zgainer. 2014. The essential guide to charter school operations: survey of America’s charter schools 2014. Washington: The Center for Education Reform. Schneider, Mark and Jack Buckley. 2003. “Making the Grade: Comparing DC Charter Schools to Other DC Public Schools.” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 25(2): 203-15 Read More