Abstract: This companion article to "Charters as Role Models" proposes that charter schools should be "deliberately, thoughtfully, boldly different from existing mainline public middle and high schools." The author worries that bringing charter schools under the No Child Left Behind framework will stifle their ability to innovate and develop radically different, and more promising, school models. He finds that "any policy that drives charters into old molds -- making them, in effect, 'look and act familiar' as worthy expressions of the existing ‘system,’ producing students who do well primarily on tests organized in ways that reflect this system -- undermines the sound intent of the charter idea." He warns, "mindlessly administered, NCLB could have the effect of driving charter schools into discredited routines, in effect, killing them."
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