As charter schools come of age, measuring their success is tricky
When the Minnesota New Country School opened two decades ago in Le Sueur, a rural town 60 miles southwest of Minneapolis, co-founder Dee Thomas and her teachers hoped to do education differently. There would be no bells between classes. Teachers would come to decisions democratically. Students would learn through self-directed projects instead of traditional classroom lectures.
For its entire existence, the school—which is adding elementary grades to serve students from kindergarten to 12th grade beginning this fall—has clung steadfastly to its initial vision, including the project-based curriculum. But with public school regulations spreading across the country and accompanying pressure on schools to perform well on one-size-fits-all standardized tests, its unique approach is at risk.
“I feel like I have a permanent bruise on my forehead from running into a brick wall,” said Thomas. The school’s future “is always in jeopardy whenever quality is based on traditional standards.”
Students at Minnesota New Country School, a project-based charter school in Henderson, Minn., work on individual projects. (Photo: Sarah Butrymowicz)
When the nation’s first charter school law was passed in Minnesota in 1991, advocates hoped the schools would serve as laboratories to try out new strategies. In return for this flexibility, schools would be forced to show results. Yet 22 years later, the charter movement nationwide is still grappling with this inherent tension between striving for
Q & A with Ember Reichgott Junge: How charters started and where they need to go next
In 1991, Minnesota became the first state in the country to allow charter schools. Since then, 41 other states and the District of Columbia have followed suit, and more than 2 million children attend charters. Ember Reichgott Junge, one of the original forces behind Minnesota’s charter law, says she is shocked by the growth over the past two decades. As she details in her new book, “Zero Chance of