I've spent much of the past year helping to engineer the creation of six new charter school on the campus of a district-run high school that was failing and closed by the district. This is a true "from scratch" start with entirely new staff, instructional programs, administration, and govenance by a nonprofit corporation that obtained a charter from the local district. The lessons learned here and from many other "conversions" we've worked with are too many to list in this format. We did all of these without help from NCLB and I don't see anything in NCLB that provides any significant new help short of the federal charter grant program. The feds could really help by giving charter schools a lot more flexibility and autonomy and cutting the red tape asssociated with other NCLB programs, especially Title I-related administrivia and the so-called "highly qualified" staffing requirements. I would recommend a "no strings attached" block grant of all federal funds to charter schools based on total student count and numbers of disadvantaged students. This is what we do with our state categorical funds in California and it really helps to enable schools to focus on instructional quality rather than paperwork.
Posted as a reply to:
Accountability and Charter Schools by Bob Montgomery 
|
|
