Specialization: The Next Wave of Reform

There are an estimated 5,000 charter schools with an estimated 1.65 million students and waiting lists that average 239 children per charter, according to the Center for Education Reform's website. In a recent posting, the Washington Times writer Deborah Simmons opines that the next wave of reform is charter schools finding and serving niches and particularly she uses the term – specialization.

First-generation charter schools did not appear much different from their traditional public counterparts in structure and scope but many of our current generation schools are finding success with specific (and often under-served) populations, a focus on specific subject matter or possibly a particular moral or ethical code.

What may work at the Rocklin Academy a Core Knowledge school in Rocklin, or at the California Aerospace Academy in North Highlands, or at the Natomas Performance and Fine Arts Academy in Natomas, might not be what is needed or what would be successful elsewhere. Charter school advocates believe the best approach to growing the charter movement rests in the hands of parents and their communities, and the marketplace.

My thoughts – and I welcome yours as well – is that the original intent for creating innovative education reform through charter schools was nurtured by the ability to operate outside the public school bureaucracy. As we press forward with education reform, laws, policies and regulations should be designed to encourage good charter schools to flourish.