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Originally posted by KillarneyRose
[B]ktsnake, I agree that Charter schools are intriguing ideas.
My county schools have designated two of the "not as good" high schools as "IB" schools, meaning that they offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme. It is an intense two-year curriculum, aimed at students in grades 11-12 and it leads to a qualification that is widely recognized by the world’s leading universities. ie: it's considered a higher designation than our high school diploma.
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The difference is that this is not a curiculum that is forced on anyone. They compete for the kids they get, and the kids have to really want to stay in (the academic expectations are very high). If a kid doesn't have the will to get through their academic programs, they will absolutely fail. This is not a school where a teacher will get in trouble for letting kids sink or swim on their own. If they can't cut it, there are always the public schools.
In Oklahoma, we measure our school's performance for NCLB by an index called the API. The highest scores in teh state were in the 1350 range. There are OKC schools (near here) that are in the 350 range. In the second year it was open, this charter school did 1280 beating MANY of the rich suburban schools. Not too shabby considering the majority of the kids receive reduced or free lunches.
Hoosier, I don't think the 5 more next year, and 5 more the year after that is going to work. The only thing that's kind of sad about this situation is that there isn't a waiting list to get into this school. It's open enrollment -- whoever enrolls will at least get a fair chance to remain and succeed academically.