NCLB and Charter Schools The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, federal legislation passed by Congress and

signed the law on Jan. 8, 2002, is a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the central federal law in pre-collegiate education. The ESEA, first enacted in 1965, and last reauthorized in 1994, provided federal funding for education programs primarily for disadvantaged students. NCLB continued to define and describe these education programs and ADDED new accountability mandates that must be met by states in order to receive funding for the programs. The primary goal of NCLB is to close the Achievement gaps between various student demographic groups; i.e., (in more concrete terms) all states are required to bring all students to state-designated proficiency levels in reading and math by 2014. In the process of solving current problems in our education system and meeting such standards, the Department of Education is promoting new and innovative education approaches. This is carried through by providing funding funding for programs that seem promising such as charter schools. Although it is just a small grant program, it is an educational approach that has captured a lot of public attention. Many individuals believed and currently believe that such charter schools are indeed the solution to the chaotic situation in our education system but there are many things to consider before deciding whether or not charter schools are better or whose than standard public schools with regards to student achievement or even quality of education. This paper will address the two spectrums, along with whether or not public charter schools are better or worse than our traditional public school, and plausible solutions that have been proposed. First of all, charter schools are basically primary or secondary schools that are given public money which they can use freely of rules, regulations and statutes that regularly apply to public

school if they in return produce results showing progress. These types of schools are opened to anyone who wishes to attend to them as an alternative to public schools. It is important to note that charter schools does not charge tuition but they do allocate via a lottery-based admission. Some charter schools provide a similar but more efficient curriculum as public schools while others specialize in certain fields which they feel are essential such as math. Some of these charter schools are known to be founded by people, like activists, parents, and teachers, who felt restricted within the public schools. Having said that, according to U.S Department of Education, the charter schools program provides financial assistance for the planning, program design, and initial implementation of charter schools, and the dissemination of information on charter schools. In such program, grants are available in those states that have charter school laws, which means they are the only ones benefited. Since they are directly in the process of developing charter schools they receive grants for the planning, development and initial implementation of that particular charter school. It is important to note that such money can and will only be used for those purposes otherwise the school is at risk of losing the grants initially provided. In addition, it is important to note that charter schools receive the same or below the amount given to public school which is why most of them seek additional funding from private sources. As mentioned earlier, the government provides a small amount of grant funding to these schools via the Title VB in the NCLB. Title VB basically provides these charter schools with financial assistance to plan, design program, and begin its implementation. As of today, 15 years after the establishment of charter schools, there are over 4,300 schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia, which server bit more than 1.2 million students which is said to be around 3% of all public school children. Although the number of charter schools have increased since 1991, they are still not enough to satisfy the demand for

quality choice options and so many families are currently waiting on lists to be enrolled in one of these charter schools. The Department of Education provides some successful stories in their website that reinforce the idea that charter schools are a plausible educational approach. For instance, they state that in Amistad Academy in New Haven the students outperform Connecticuts students in both math and reading with an average state test scores that are within 80-85% of students who pass the exams. According to them, this is quite amazing considering this charter school is composed of middle-schoolers who are of low-income. Likewise, during 2006-2007 school year the students in Carl C. Icahn Charter School in the Bronx, scored above the state mathematics exam. Once again this was amazing considering that 90% of this group of students were of low-income and that 100% of such group achieved such outstanding scores. INDIVIDUAL STUDIES] Unfortunately, based on the meta-analyses on studies and on other sources, not all schools are quite as successful or not even successful at all. The U.S Department of Education, under National Charter School Policy, also recognizes that there are indeed many charter schools that are performing at the highest level but that there are some that are quite struggling to provide the necessary quality education. They claim that this is to be expected because any system that allows flexibility and encourages innovations is bond to have a disperse array of results. Many experts claim that there are many factors that might result in such observation like not enough income, availability, support, systematic structure and what not. Therefore in conclusion, the only way to solve this problem in our education system is to actually take a look at possible solutions and try to implement them as best as possible. For instance, we can try to analyze and maybe emulate Amistad Academy who has shown a strong [ADD META ANALYSES OR

academic performance and has been visited by many people around the world due to its success. The Growing Pains: Scaling Up the Nations Best Charter Schools article states that it have been difficult and expensive for Amistad Academy to achieve such success. Due to such success charter management organizations have set to work with Achievement First to emulate the best urban charter schools in the country. In addition, there are others who think that charter schools and their opponents are simply unproductive confrontations which should be bargaining in order to actually progress. They propose that these two should-- strike and address legitimate concerns of charter school critics, while allowing high-quality charter schools to expand and serve more students. Here we observe are a more flexible initiative which aims to solve the problem by a mutual compromising of charter schools and their opponents. Andre J. Rotherham outlines five deals that satisfy both sides and therefore help make progress. These so win-win deals are to: trade charter school caps for more rapid expansion of proven charter schools, trading the high test scores from some charter schools for space for charter schools, linking transitional aid for public schools to access to facilities for charter schools, joining the effort to improve school finance with the expansion of charter schooling, and unionizing some charter schools with teachers contract that reflect the core values of charter schooling. Like Rotherham, there are many others who provide solutions but the last one we will be observing are those stated in the article, Creating the Schools Our Nation Needs: NCLB Reauthorization and the Promise of Public Charter Schools. They make several recommendations in different sectors such as charter schools program, appropriations for charter schools, accountability, teacher quality and restructuring. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools wants to see Charter Schools Program redesigned taking in consideration the goals of growth and quality to leverage the power of

chartering as a more effective vehicle for meeting goals of the law, considering they are part of reauthorization of NCLB. They also would like to see congress increase appropriations level for federal charter grant programs such as CPS, Credit Enhancement for Charter Facilities, and State Facilities Incentive Program while at the same time providing the resources to those who are at most need. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools also want to see changes in the NCLBs accountability requirements so they absolutely without a doubt measure proficiency and progress toward standards which would force states to establish and use growth models that reflect all of this. According to them, the teacher quality should move towards an emphasis on teacher outcomes than on input-based qualifications and therefore be rewarded based on the performance of students. Lastly, they suggest that NCLBs structuring requirements should be revised so states and districts can actually take action in reforming those schools which are failing. After observing and analyzing the information provided by several sources, which exposed supporters and opponents of charter schools as well as facts, I have constructed my own perspective towards the problem. To begin with, I personally think that the information provided by some of the supporters is not completely right or wrong. There are supporters that provide studies to support their claims, some being partially true considering that the studies used are not as thorough as they should be. For instance, some supporters claim that charter schools are succeeding but we have found out that this is not true thanks to other sources that show how these sources are not taking a look at the full spectrum. It is indeed true that some charter schools are reflecting academic achievement but there are still many which are not. Based on the information and data observed, I strongly believe that charter schools are indeed succeeding but the number of schools doing so are not that great. It was interesting to see how many individuals and organizations have observed such claim and designed plausible solutions. If I had to choose from

the suggested solution above, I would choose the last one simply because it is more thorough. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools makes recommendations that are without a doubt necessary but they do so in such a specific manner that tells us exactly how things should be implemented. It is not to say I did not like the previous two suggestions but I do feel they are vague. The suggestion about emulating Amistad Academy focuses on praising this charter school and only claims that their establishment was of great difficulty and expensive. I really would have like them to be more specific and what their procedures were during their establishment and what exactly is making them so successful. Lastly, the suggestion proposed by Andrew J. Rotherham are very interesting but he never explicitly states how these will be carried on. All in all, I personally think that there are many outstanding solutions out there in our country which we just need to reconcile in order to attain academic achievement.

Bibliographic Citation

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"Legislation: Grant Information." Ed.gov. Department of Education, 10 20 2008. Web. 26 Sep 2010. http://www2.ed.gov/admins/comm/choice/csforum/report.html. "A Commitment to Quality National Charter School Policy Forum Report October 2008." Ed.gov. Department of Education, 11 09 2009. Web. 25 Sep 2010. <http://www2.ed.gov/admins/comm/choice/csforum/report.html>. "About the Charter School Movement." US Charter Schools. WestEd, N/A. Web. 24 Sep 2010. http://www.uscharterschools.org/pub/uscs_docs/o/movement.htm. K-8 Charter Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap. Ed.gov. Department of Education, 17 Nov 2009. Web 24 Sep 2010. http://www2.ed.gov/admins/comm/choice/charterk- 8/index.html. Charter Connection:Fight the Myths: And Spread the Truth About Charter Schools." Center for Education Reform. Bis Global Inc., 2009. Web. 26 Sep 2010. http://www.edreform.com/Issues/Charter_Connection/?Fight_the_Myths_And_Sp read_the_Truth_About_Charter_Schools. "Charter Schools in Eight States: Effects on Achievement, Attainment, Integration, and Competition." RAND. Rand Corporation, 15 09 2008. Web. 25 Sep 2010. http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG869/. "Going Beyond Scores." RAND. Rand Corporation, 15 09 2008. Web. 29 Sep 2010. http://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR610/. Brooker, Kevin, Brian Gill , Ron Zimmer, and Tim R Sass. "Achievement and Attainment in Chicago Charter Schools. Technical Report." Educational Resources informatin Center. Rand Corporation, 2009. Web. 25 Sep 2010. http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICEx tSearch_SearchValue_0=ED504521&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno= ED504521. "Growing Pains: Scaling Up the Nation's Best Charter Schools." Education Sector. Education Sector Inc., 23 11 2009. Web. 25 Sep 2010. <http://www.educationsector.org/publications/growing-pains-scaling-nations-best- charterschools>. "Fair Trade: Five Deals to Expand and Improve Charter Schooling." Education Sector. Education Sector Inc., 18 01 2008. Web. 25 Sep 2010. <http://www.educationsector.org/publications/fair-trade-five-deals-expand-andimprove-charter-schooling>.

"Creating the Schools Our Nation Needs: NCLB Reauthorization and the Promise of Public Charter Schools." National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Public Charters Inc., march 2007. Web. 25 Sep 2010. <http://www.publiccharters.org/files/publications/file_NAPCS_NCLB_Statement_ Singles_for_Web_1_.pdf>. In-Text Citation to highlight & copy ("National Alliance for Public Charter Schools") There are usually many variations of