Seattle Schools Community Forum: Wild Conjecture about Charter Schools as ALEs

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Wild Conjecture about Charter Schools as ALEs:

Wild Conjecture about Charter Schools as ALEs

We don't really know how it would work if an urban charter school in Western Washington became an We don't really know how it would work if an urban charter school in Western Washington became an Alternative Learning Experience program of a rural school district in Eastern Washington.

Since we don't really know, let's make some wild conjecture about it.


State laws regulate schools pretty tightly - teacher:student ratios, the number of hours of planned instructional time each year, and lots more. But state law also allows for Alterntative Learning Experiences (ALEs). In an ALE, so long as the school can show that the students are learning what they are supposed to be learning, a whole lot of the regulations are off. So much for those who claim that innovative education isn't possible within public schools.

In particular, ALEs can allow for a lot of independent study. That's how online schools operate.

Seattle Public Schools has two of these: Cascade Parent Partnership Program and Interagency Academy. In the past, The NOVA Project and STEM at Cleveland have been ALEs, but they are no longer.

If a school district, even a small, rural school district such as Mary Walker School District, chose to do it, they could easily (and profitably) make charter schools, even those far outside the district's geographical boundaries, into ALE programs. Here's how:

After they get all of the students through the process of requesting a transfer from their home district to the new district, they enroll the students in an ALE program. The program can be essentially an independent study program. Now all of the students are responsible for educating themselves and the district is responsible for making sure that they do.

What does the district get out of this? Money. Lots of money. The state money allocated for each of the students. And their cost is the cost of administering an ALE which, if you don't work too hard at it, can be done very cheaply. They just have to fill out the paperwork and administer the state tests. They don't have to provide staff - no teachers, counselors, secretaries, principals, janitors, or program of a rural school district in Eastern Washington.

Since we don't really know, let's make some wild conjecture about it.


State laws regulate schools pretty tightly - teacher:student ratios, the number of hours of planned instructional time each year, and lots more. But state law also allows for Alterntative Learning Experiences (ALEs). In an ALE, so long as the school can show that the students are learning what they are supposed to be learning, a whole lot of the regulations are off. So much for those who claim that innovative education isn't possible within public schools.

In particular, ALEs can allow for a lot of independent study. That's how online schools operate.

Seattle Public Schools has two of these: Cascade Parent Partnership Program and Interagency Academy. In the past, The NOVA Project and STEM at Cleveland have been ALEs, but they are no longer.

If a school district, even a small, rural school district such as Mary Walker School District, chose to do it, they could easily (and profitably) make charter schools, even those far outside the district's geographical boundaries, into ALE programs. Here's how:

After they get all of the students through the process of requesting a transfer from their home district to the new district, they enroll the students in an ALE program. The program can be essentially an independent study program. Now all of the students are responsible for educating themselves and the district is responsible for making sure that they do.

What does the district get out of this? Money. Lots of money. The state money allocated for each of the students. And their cost is the cost of administering an ALE which, if you don't work too hard at it, can be done very cheaply. They just have to fill out the paperwork and administer the state tests. They don't have to provide staff - no teachers, counselors, secretaries, principals, janitors, or Seattle Schools Community Forum: Wild Conjecture about Charter Schools as ALEs: