To whom is a Charter School Accountable. Ultimitely, it is accountable to the Community in which it exists. It is using taxpayer funds! It is accountable to the taxpayers, the parents, and the community! The founding an governing boards specifiy the aims, hopes, and purposes they are trying to achieve. They need to have achievable, not 'pie -in-the-sky' goals. All resources available should be utilized, including the teachers, and their unions.
Teachers are often made the villains of any failures; yet they are holding together communities of children in difficult educational climates.
Do charter schools help of hinder, the work of the teachers? Do they ever consult with teachers? Do they ever try to work out problems with teacher unions? Why is it that charter schools have such a failing record of teacher turnover, and administrator turnover?
Do teachers ever feel secure enough to go all out and give it their best shot? They may know where they stand the first year, but how about later in their careers? What are their opportunities of growth? What advice is asked of them in formulating, choosing, not just executing program?
Are teachers free of threats and harassment from administrators over them? To whom can they express their point to view and still maintain their positions? Are there opportunities for settling differences?
I seem have found that charter schools tend to be top-down authoritarians, and stress one sided teacher 'performance', agreeability,and willingness to follow the leader, no matter what.
Do charter schools treat their teachers with respect as professionals, or do they settle for the newest, least experienced, most desperate teachers, and 'guide' them from there with iron clad rules?
What is the proportion of first year teachers with seasoned teachers?
Charter schools do not tolerate seniority or tenure rights of teachers. What is their stand on bargaining rights and arbitrattion?
When teachers are disrupted from their classes in the middle of a school year, their students are severly impacted. Remember many of these children already come from broken homes.
Have teachers and their professional needs been left out of the long-term charter school equation?
Posted as a reply to:
Accountability Roles & Processes (Authorizers & Other Stakeholders) by Bob Montgomery 
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