Inside Charter Schools: The Paradox of Radical Decentralization

Published by Harvard University Press 2000

Inside Charter Schools

The Paradox of Radical Decentralization

Edited by: Bruce Fuller
With contributions by: Edward Wexler , Kate Zernike , Luis Huerta , Eric Edward Rofes , Patty Yancey , Amy Stuart Wells , Jennifer Jellison Holme and Ash Vasudeva

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674037427

Overview
Contents

About this book

The charter school movement has attracted a colorful band of supporters, from presidential candidates, to ethnic activists, to the religious Right. This book provides shrewd and illuminating studies of the struggles and achievements of these new schools, and offers practical lessons for educators, scholars, policymakers, and parents.

Reviews

This insightful...[and] wide-ranging discussion gives readers a real feel for what charter schools are like, allowing them to step inside a school and see what the hope and hype are all about...Providing no easy answers, this study offers practical lessons to parents, educators, and policymakers aiming for reform and support of public education as a whole.
-- Leroy Hommerding Library Journal

As many public schools grow larger and more diverse, the charter school movement gains equal and opposite momentum statewide. Bruce Fuller has charted this movement as it gains momentum across the state and nation. His Inside Charter Schools: The Paradox of Radical Decentralization offers a peek inside six such schools...Fuller steers clear of a blanket like-or-dislike viewpoint. Instead, he shows the problems individual charter schools face.
-- Colleen Flannery Education Beat

Published a decade after the introduction of charter schools, the most dynamic and important school reform movement in recent memory, this collection offers rare insight into charter classrooms as well as a framework for the public policy discussion that surrounds them...The book is at its best when it lets the stories of the schools speak for themselves, unable to answer the broad policy questions but helping readers understand their complexity.
-- Jodi Wilgoren New York Times

In this book Fuller offers six essays--as much works of journalism as they are academic pieces--on six very different charter school experiments...Fuller deftly ties the grab-bag together with his own opening and closing thoughts on the philosophical and political tension between allowing free-thinkers to experiment and maintaining a community commitment to free and equitable education for all...The book provides a useful benchmark for a movement that in many ways is just getting started.
-- Jay Matthews The Washington Monthly

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction: Growing Charter Schools, Decentering the State Bruce Fuller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 The Public Square, Big or Small? Charter Schools in Political Context Bruce Fuller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	12
2 We Hold on to Our Kids,We Hold on Tight: Tandem Charters in Michigan Patty Yancey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
3 An Empowering Spirit Is Not Enough: A Latino Charter School Struggles over Leadership Edward Wexler and Luis A. Huerta Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
4 Selling Air: New England Parents Spark a New Revolution Kate Zernike Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
5 Diversity and Inequality: Montera Charter High School Amy Stuart Wells, Jennifer Jellison Holme and Ash Vasudeva Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	144
6 Losing Public Accountability: A Home Schooling Charter Luis A Huerta Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
7 Teachers as Communitarians: A Charter School Cooperative in Minnesota Eric Rofes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
8 Breaking Away or Pulling Together? Making Decentralization Work Bruce Fuller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	230
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 301

eBook

Published: July 1, 2009
ISBN: 9780674037427