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Curriculum
and Learning Program
This chapter will provide you with helpful information
in planning for the type of curriculum you want for your school. This
vital topic addresses the major aim of the Minnesota charter school
statute, namely new approaches to schooling.
It can be seen from all six of the purposes of the statute
that the teaching and learning of students is at the heart of the reasoning
for establishing charter schools. The Minnesota charter school law states
that the purpose of charter schools is to:
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Improve pupil learning;
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Increase learning opportunities for pupils;
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Encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods;
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Require the measurement of learning outcomes and create different
and innovative forms of measuring outcomes;
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Establish new forms of accountability for schools; or
- Create new professional opportunities for teachers, including
the opportunity to be responsible for the learning program at the
school site. (MN Stats 124D.10, subd1)
Every charter school must be designed to meet one or more of the above
stated purposes.
In practice, Minnesota charter schools have adopted a very wide range
of teaching and learning programs. Existing Minnesota charter schools
range from Summerhillian to classical; and from highly student-centered
to highly teacher directed. Whatever the decision, the school will be
responsible for showing that students learn basic skills and meet state
graduation standards.
Charter schools offer teachers unprecedented opportunities to use different
approaches to working with students. Under charter law, they do this
in an unfettered position free from central office directives and contract
restrictions while remaining accountable for results in terms of student
learning-a dream situation for the professional educator.
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Examples of Learning Programs in Charter Schools
We'll describe a number of curriculum approaches separated for sake
of description, though in practice there may be considerable overlap.
For example, even a traditionally organized school may have students
doing projects part of the time. The following descriptions are meant
to convey a central theme or primary way of learning the school has
chosen for its program and described in its approved charter application.
All of the following descriptions can be found in existing Minnesota
charter schools in a fairly pure form. Considerable information can
be found about each type on the Internet.
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Project Based. Two approaches are used. Teachers determine
projects for students to research and report on, or students decide
on topics that interest them and seek information from a wide range
of sources. In both, students learn to find information on the topic,
organize their findings, and make presentations. Most learning is
interdisciplinary in approach. Periodically, in many schools, the
presentations are organized as exhibitions for the public.
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Online Learning. Sometimes called cyber schools or virtual
schools, students do all or part of their course work via computers
over the Internet using the school's software or vendor services.
Students may work at home or at the school site. Tracking systems
record student progress, time spent online, and achievement.
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School to Work. Programs that emphasize work experience,
internships and career exploration. One program uses the U.S. Dept.
of Labor SCANS research to match student career interests to skills
and knowledge needed in the student's field of interest.
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Core Knowledge. A national pre-K through grade 8 program
began by E. D. Hirsh Jr. with specific knowledge and skills spelled
out in considerable detail for each subject and grade level. The
program emphasizes the importance of students learning a large body
of "common knowledge" that an educated person would be expected
to know.
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Direct Instruction. A national program mostly for elementary
grades designed by Siegfried Engelmann with tightly scripted lessons
teachers that use to lead students to specific responses. Subject
matter is carefully sequenced for teachers who follow detailed scripts.
That is, teachers read from manuals and students respond, often
chorally.
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Thematic. These schools emphasize a particular subject area
such as math, science or the arts. For example, in an arts school
perhaps half of the day will be devoted to areas of the arts (music,
visual arts, dance) and the other half of the day will be for the
remaining subjects of the usual curriculum.
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Community-based Learning. These schools take many more trips
into the community, thus exposing students to how the world works.
The aim is to help them gain greater knowledge and awareness. More
time and budget is spent on field trips and bringing resource people
into the school. Some schools pursue long-distance trips, sometimes
internationally as a way of stretching student understanding and
increasing learning.
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Experiential Learning. These schools exemplify "learning
by doing." Other terms to describe this approach are: hands-on learning
and active learning. The emphasis is on students setting goals for
themselves and establishing learning experiences that help them
accomplish their goals. For example, some schools have their students
enter the high mileage car contest with the expectation that students
will learn important skills and in the process gained considerable
knowledge of physics, mechanics, and teaming. Another school has
high school students remodeling homes. Some have students involved
in entrepreneurial projects.
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Sudbury model. Based on the Sudbury school in Sudbury, Massachusetts,
students determine their entire learning program. Teachers act as
facilitators to assist students with their interests. The schools
operate as democratic communities in which each student and each
staff member have one vote in making decisions about the program.
The Summerhill School in England was one of the famous pioneers
of this approach.
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Traditional or Conventional. These schools are what most
of us have experienced. Students are taught in grade levels and
the curriculum is organized into specific subjects of language arts,
social studies, math, science, physical education, health, music,
art, and electives such as foreign language and others.
As schools choose an approach or a combination, clear implications
follow. For example, an online learning school needs to decide how students
will obtain computers and how the computers will be maintained. An experiential
learning school may find it difficult to find teachers trained in that
approach and may have to budget quite differently. Some schools using
non-course based approaches may need teachers licensed for interdisciplinary
learning, not sufficiently provided for by the Minnesota Board of Teaching.
Many of these approaches vary considerably from conventional schools.
In fact, most could not be done in a conventional school because parents
would not permit it as an approach for everyone unless organized as
a school within a school and a choice to be made by parents. Charter
schools begin with a chosen model and advertise to attract parent who
want that type of education for their children.
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Staff Development
Staff who can successfully implement a model will be the most crucial
factor in the operation of a given model of education. It has been said
that a poorly-trained, uncaring staff will botch even the best plan
for your school's curriculum. Conversely, a powerful staff will make
something out of a poorly planned model. Put as much time into the initial
training as you possibly can. Use part of your start-up funds for staff
development, say, four weeks prior to the beginning of the first year
with perhaps another 10 days or the equivalent during the year. Don't
forget to take about a week at the end of the year to consider what
went well; what needs improving and what goals need to be set for the
following year. Staff development needs to be ongoing and budgeted into
each year's expenditures. Staff development can take many forms: visits
to other schools, presentations by consultants, conference attendance,
feedback from surveys and evaluations, team planning.
Summary
The special beauty of the charter school law is that choosing to implement
one of these models or other approaches does not require a school to
change, but rather a school starts with the design from the very beginning
and attracts staff with the skills to implement it. The major issue
an extreme design faces is whether parents will choose that school,
that is, whether there is a market for the model. An unconventional
school faces an additional burden: that of proving that it produces
the kind of student learning the state and sponsor find acceptable.
For More Information
Existing charter schools provide a valuable source of information about
different curriculum models. To learn which models existing schools
are implementing, see the Profiles of Minnesota Charter Schools, a directory
of charter schools in the state. The Profiles can be found online at
www.centerforschoolchange.org/directory.asp
. A visit and discussion with staff at operating schools will be most
helpful in making decisions about the school you wish to establish.
The staff at a school you like will be able to suggest resources for
further information. Use the Internet to find information on many of
the models, particularly nationally known ones. You will find organizations
and resources with much detail on a number of the models. See the book:
Learning Alternatives for Everyone by Don Glines, available from www.learningalternatives.net.
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