Is it the parent or a 'professional' teacher? I ask because while I was up late last night i was listening to the news about how charter school teachers are doing much better than public school teachers and they need to research or are researching why charter school teachers are better. I really wished I paid more attention about this only because I though it was the parents teaching the child but following a charter school either public or private. The teacher is you check in person and you don't have to deal with too much paper work and supplies are either free or cheap. If it's parents doing most of the work for at these charter schools then it's the parents doing better not the teachers that work for the charter? I never looked into charter schools personally. we went from public school to home school four years ago.
That is a very good point. When my DD did the virtual thing through an online public school in Colorado she had ZERO interaction with her "teacher". We both hated that program. I had to do the teaching but couldn't modify the schedule or the curriculum. Dumb.
It depends upon the cyber school program that you choose. If it is self-paced, then the parent would be the one to work with the child. If it is a virtual class, then there is a teacher. The program doesn't sound like it was too clear about that though.
Sometimes the term charter school refers to an actual b&m public school which has obtained the right from their state to conduct school, but with a set "target student" in mind, like LD kids, or "at risk" youth (which might be defined differently in different settings), or kids not identified as LD who have trouble with reading..... or however they define their "target student" when they obtain their charter. If this is what they're referring to, it's a public school straight up and down, BUT the charter school might have more say in choosing their curriculum and materials, methods of instruction, class size and composition, disciplinary methods, grading system, and so on. They still can't be a religious school or use religious materials, for example, and they can't refuse admission to a student who otherwise fits their criteria for admission. Because it's a public school. Some of these are formed by parents, and some have parents on campus either teaching or being classroom aides or just sitting on the board, but ultimately it's still a public school. "Virtual charter" would be like K12 or ConnectionsAcademy that public schools use to lure people who would otherwise be homeschooling or dropping out, to remain enrolled in public school, by giving them "free" computers and printers and books/materials. They're doing their education at home, but they're still public school enrolled students doing public school curriculum under public school's rules. "Virtual academies" or "online schools" might actually be homeschool, like Alpha Omega, or Keystone or so many others, where the parent pays and chooses and is generally in charge of the child's education. Article writers seldom include these in their meaning of "charter schools". So when you read that "charter schools" are doing a better job than public schools, a person would have to know what terminology the article writer is using.
Thanks, Lindina. I can check off my "learn something new" box today! I've always wondered just what all that meant.
I was going to post something similar to Lindina's post. She phrased it much better than I ever could. It depends on what is meant by charter school. In my parents' opinion one of our local public charter schools is horrible. My parents are both public school teachers and have seen one of the charter schools. This particular one is a school set up in a rented out business building. It is for kids who are LD and/or "at risk"/out of juvenile detention. The certified public school "administrators/teachers" for the program just sit around while the students do their school work on the computers. My parents are homebound (usually one to one teaching) teachers currently, so they have received or shared some of the same students from the charter school. They don't work at that same building though. My parents say that the computer/virtual school program that the students use in this particular charter is extremely difficult to understand and doesn't seem to be helping the students. My parents don't have any experience with any other of our local public charters though. One other public charter around here is for GT kids in grades 7-12.
I know that the local charter school here in N. Texas is a public school, but it doesn't have to admit everyone. They can kick a child out if they are a behavior problem, while the regular school sends them to a different campus or deals with them at the "home" campus. This school says it encourages good character traits and it is held (or part of it) at a local Christian church. I have also heard the pastor of that church prays for the school, but of course he can't do that in the school setting, so I imagine he does it on his own time or however you can with a public school. It may be a slightly better option for some, but not for my son. But after homeschooling for a little over half a year, I tried to get him enrolled, thinking it was THE answer for us. I am glad now that they were too full. Because now I want to homeschool him and I don't feel overwhelmed and nervous (or at least not much) and I know that even if my son needs a different approach-we can do that. If he went to that school he would be subject to the rigors of education that often crush his spirit-many hours of work at the school only to be followed by homework.
My dd is in a charter school through k12. I would say that 95% is parent taught using their curriculum. She takes one online class on wednesdays, the rest is up to me to teach. We only talk to her teacher if there is a problem. We meet once a quarter and show them one sample from each subject. So I would say with K12 atleast its the parents doing the teaching. I like k12 but we want more freedom in what we learn when so we're wanting to homeschool ourselves next year.
The charter school we belonged to in CA was just getting credit for the wonderful teaching of the parents. We met once a month to turn in stuff and hand in order forms to spend our funding. The teacher did nothing else at all. Their high test scores were because of the hard work of the parents. They let us pick our curriculum, set our own pace, and make all the decisions. They just provided funds and kept records.
It really depends on the school and the family I think. For example, my two older girls both take classes at Florida Virtual School, and while I've heard that many homeschooling moms would not consider them to be "real homeschoolers", I do. Usually the reasons they say they are not "real homeschoolers" are: 1) They say... "You can't change/choose the curriculum" ... We actually supplement the curriculum and arranged with one of the teachers to completely change the curriculum for one of my 7th grader's classes to fit what she was interested in. For example, I'll assign them Khan Academy or Brain Pop videos related to what they are studying. I also am having them do BigStatesTime because I'd like for them to be more familiar with each state. Also, they can take as many or as few courses as they want. There isn't a requirement for them to take specific courses either. 2) They say... "Teachers are teaching, not the parents" ... Our experience has been that it's mostly self-directed learning. Although, my girls are in middle school and high school, so that often the case at that age for homeschoolers anyways. In addition to them teaching themselves, I will often sit down with them to review what they are learning or help them with things they don't understand. They also do one oral exam per module(chapter) with a teacher and have the opportunity to chat online with student tutors and teachers for things I can't assist them with. 3) They say.. "It's really just a public school you are doing from home." ... Well, that's true. The school is "freely", as free as anything that our taxes pay for can be, available to all children in Florida. But, my kids are still homeschoolers. I actually consider my kids to be relaxed homeschoolers, bordering on unschoolers. For the most part, they only take the classes they want to take. The only thing I'm requiring anyone learn is I require my 10 year old to do English and Math lesson through Time4Learning, and I'm requiring all of them to do BigStatesTime. 4) They say... "You can't choose 'when' to do your school" ... This is somewhat true. The way it happens is the child makes an agreement with the teach about how long they are going to take to do a semester's worth of work. There is a suggested guideline about how long it "should" take, but it's up to the student to decide the length of time they want to do the semester in. So, it's the child's choice, but once the child makes the choice, they have to stick with it or risk having to drop the class to make room for someone else who wants to take the course. I really wish it didn't bother me so much. But, it does. It really offends me when "real homeschoolers" say that people using virtual schools aren't "real homeschoolers". I will agree, however, that not all charter school students are homeschoolers. My oldest attended a charter school in 6th grade. Our local middle school was awful, so we entered the lottery to get her into a public charter school, which was actually a brick and morter school. After a year of her being exhausted from riding the bus an hour each way every day, we decided to try homeschooling the next year. We loved it so much, we brought home the other two the following year. We did what others would consider "real homeschooling" for 2 years and then my oldest discovered Florida Virtual School. She signed up for one class, loved it and signed up for more. My middle child then signed up for some classes too. She also likes them. My youngest tried a Virtual School course and hated it. So, she's back to enjoying her days, learning in her own way.
Mandiana-your girls sound like real homeschoolers to me. It must be different in each state I'm guessing. I'm pretty sure our Wisconsin Parent Association (WI private home education group) does not like to call virtual public schoolers homeschoolers because of the difference in laws and doesn't want to confuse the public or the law makers. It doesn't matter to me what people call it. My cousin's wife is having her 10 y.o. do virtual/internet public school at home. She calls it homeschooling and I don't care. She was asking me questions about what I do though and realized that she has different rules to play by than I do.
We use a charter school and we can't just enroll our child (unless there are other siblings first) we had to go to a homeschool 101 class and then another class letting us know about their program, what they expect of us and what can expect of them. We also we're told we basically don't have any boundaries except they cannot provide any material to us pertaining to religion based curriculum. From that point we had an intake interview with someone (admin or even higher up mentor teachers). At that point we did our interviews on what we'd like in a mentor teacher and what we think our child needs. I just happened to have the teacher ask me if she could please have our family, she really wanted us to be one of her families. Normally, I guess that doesn't happen but she really liked us and even told another admin that she had dibs on us (that made me feel great considering we were new to the whole thing). Every quarter we have to sign an agreement with the school holding us to our bargain so to speak. Including the kids and mentor teacher. We've had the same mentor teacher for our youngest dd and she will have to go to a mentor teacher that does high school kids next year, I'm hoping our ds will have her next year but it depends upon her openings since there's another kid that has dibs on my dd's opening. We are required to have so many hours per month done depending on how many days there are, and we turn in a form for that stating what books were done and how many pages. My dh and I are responsible for assigning all assignments and teaching them unless we need help or it's a workshop and the kids get assignments from that. We only turn in work two times a year and we call that sample week, everything has to be labeled and corrected before we turn it in. I call in He double hockey stick week because it's just always a crazy week at home when we have to do it. Technically...we don't have to use the work from that week but I do. The school offers workshops (classes) in many different areas and it's up to the family to take advantage of them or not. Same with sports since our school is a K-12 school there are sports for the high school kids and anyone is accepted to play even if they have never played before. Our mentor teachers work with my kids one on one. If it's something I can't figure out or can't teach them we go to our mentor teacher. We have email addresses, phone numbers and if they aren't available because sometimes they aren't we know we can ask any other mentor teacher for help and they will help us. For us a charter school works, we get what we need out of it and it fits our family.
