1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910778195603321

Titolo

Inside charter schools [[electronic resource] ] : the paradox of radical decentralization / / edited by Bruce Fuller

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, MA, : Harvard University Press, 2000

ISBN

0-674-03742-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (304 p.)

Altri autori (Persone)

FullerBruce

Disciplina

371.01

Soggetti

Charter schools - United States

Schools - Decentralization - United States

Education and state - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

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.