Charter Schools Best Practices

Abstract

The Purpose of this chapter is to survey innovations and best practices in charter schools from a theoretical and empirical perspective. The goal is to identify essential elements needed to close the acheivement gap, and identify effective practices that enable all students to reach their fullest academic potential. The scope of this chapter focuses on the practices of charter schools form a national and local level, and incorporates anecdotal evidence collected from charter school personnel, authorizing districts, charter management organizations as well as an extant review of the literature. Furthermore, this study seeks to understand and identify those practices that are effective in improving student performance and why within any given set of variables these variables will not yield the same results. Ultimately, there are countless factors that determine school success, which are integral to what constitutes best practice. Findings revealed that although there is much evidence to support best practices in charter schools, in the end it is not about what is best; it is about what works effectively at each individual school.

Citation

Hughes, K.B. and Silva, S.A.M. (2013), "Charter Schools Best Practices", Hughes, K.B. and Silva, S.A.M. (Ed.) Identifying Leaders for Urban Charter, Autonomous and Independent Schools: Above and Beyond the Standards (Advances in Educational Administration, Vol. 18), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 171-186. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3660(2013)0000018015