Before You Judge: My First Charter School Experience

I mentioned in my post a couple of weeks ago that I had an opportunity to check out Teach For America in Cleveland. The event ended earlier today and I am so glad I went. I learned more about TFA, charter schools, city reform, the growing city of Cleveland, etc. It was one of the best weekends I have ever had. The best part about this trip was that I got to step foot into a charter school for the first time ever. It was perfect timing because we had been talking about charter schools last week. Just like TFA, charter schools receive so much scrutiny when in reality there are a lot of good charter schools out there (like there are great corp members trying to make a difference in education) 

Everything about the 2nd grade charter school I visited in Cleveland (Village Prep) was different than that of the public schools I've been too. The structure of the classroom and curriculum was impressive. These students were disciplined and focused. The way TFA corp member Miss Charishma Soni taught the children worked very well. There were silent cues and learned hand gestures to get them focused, she addressed them by calling them scholars instead of students, and she expressed lots of positive feedback and reinforcement. The statistics on the classroom walls proved this classroom was gaining a great education from a great teacher. I thought it was very cool that each classroom was named after a university or college. This particular classroom was called Duke University. I think that's another unique and powerful aspect of charter schools because young children are being reminded everyday that college can be a reality for them no matter what their circumstances and backgrounds are.

Now I understand that this was just one charter school but I had never seen this type of structure and learning in public schools. With that being said, for those who have strong negative opinions about all charter schools, I think they should do observations and look at the facts of an individual charter school. The parents in The Lottery were completely negative about all the charter schools and I don't think that's fair. As far as the issue about rejecting students with developmental issues, there was a child in Duke University that had lead poisoning (environment issues in Cleveland) and had some issues focusing and performing. His attendance is an example that not EVERY charter school rejects students with developmental or learning disabilities.

Here is an article with some facts about Ohio charter schools. Some facts that stood out to me were:

28% of charter school students have a disability

60% students are racial minorities

52% (60% in the top 5 cities in Ohio) support charter schools

This experience makes me more interested to learn about charter schools and possible becoming apart of the movement to improve our student's quality of education.