Twelve studies find that overall gains in charter schools are larger than other public schools; four find charter schools’ gains higher in certain significant categories of schools; six find comparable gains; and, four find that charter schools’ overall gains lagged behind traditional schools.
This on-line case study of Leadership High School, was conducted by the Policy Support & Studies Program at WestEd, an educational research and development organization, with support from the US Department of Education. It aims to capture the key strategies and day-to-day challenges in starting and running a charter school. Leadership High School started from scratch in 1997-98, as part of the San Francisco Unified School District, San Francisco, CA.
As the first installment in the series, this article provides an introduction to the school and an overview of its students, staff, and instructional program.
This second installment focuses on the origins of the school's mission and instructional philosophy, the process used in designing the school during its early development, and the success of the school's founder in negotiating the approval of the charter.
This third installment focuses on the strategies used by the school to find a facility for the school, develop a budget, and establish a board of directors.
The fourth installment examines why many of the students and teachers came to LHS, including the strategies used by the school to recruit, as well as reasons students and staff themselves cite for coming.
The fifth and final installment summarizes some of the major lessons LHS has to offer other prospective school developers before starting their own schools. It also offers insights for other charter school operators in establishing practices that can help benefit a school in its early years.
Case Study by Don Klein, JoAnn Izu, and Kyo Yamashiro.
Photo editing and HTML coding by Jessie Johnson.
Please email us your feedback on these installments at uscharterschools@wested.org.
