Question: How has the establishment of charter schools changed over time? How has the enrollment in charter schools changed over time because of these changes?
Significance: After watching the documentary “The Lottery” I was moved to see parents crying over their children not gaining admissions into charter schools. There is clearly something very special about the charter schools in NYC that causes parents to show up to the lottery each year and gamble with their children’s futures. I would like to research what makes these parents keep coming back and how charter schools have improved over the years to make them even better and more attractive to parents. Parents deserve the right to send their children to a high quality school despite geographical placement, demographics, race or socio-economic background and income. I want to learn what charter schools in NYC are doing that puts them in position where they are in such high demand to gain admission. I think it’s worth researching the rise of charter schools in NYC, the conflicts they faced over time in establishing themselves and finally I’d like to look into how the desire from parents to enroll their children in Charter schools over regular public schools has changed overtime. Many articles are also suggestion that the charter schools have been improving over the years and they have increased their technology and parent involvement in the schooling system. Lastly my good friend works with Success Charter Academy, (the largest charter school network in NYC) and has invited me to come watch the lottery and to spend a day in one of her schools and talk to a facility member.
Bibliography
Primary Sources:
I will be going to interview with a member of the Success Charter Academy.
I will be going to the Lottery in April.
Secondary Sources:
Brill, Steven. Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America’s Schools. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print.
Green, Elizabeth. “GothamSchools â Daily Independent Reporting on NYC Public Schools.” For the First Time, Charter Schools Will Open up to 4-year-olds. 29 Jan. 2011. Web. 04 Apr. 2012. <http://gothamschools.org/2009/01/29/for-the-first-time-charter-schools-will-open-up-to-4-year-olds/>.
“Harlem Success Academy Case Study.” – CellTrust®. 2011. Web. 04 Apr. 2012. <http://www.celltrust.com/products/sms-gateway/celltrust-harlem.html>.
Madeleine Sackler. The Lottery. Video documentary, 2010. http://thelotteryfilm.com/.
Phillips, Anna M. “Budget Analysis: Charter Spending Squeezing Education Budget.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 04 Apr. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/03/29/budget-analysis-charter-spending-squeezing-education-budget/>.
Caroline, you have some interesting ideas here about charter school enrollment policies and practices, but I recommend that you revise the wording of your research question to clarify exactly what you’re planning to investigate for this writing assignment. For example, are you looking at charter schools in a particular location? (If so, tell us that in the RQ.) Are you more interested in how these schools were created — or how and why enrollment has changed over time?
When we met, you brainstormed with me and came up with a different acceptable question for this assignment: What were teaching practices like inside the first wave of charter schools in NYC, and have these practices changed as more charters were added over time?
As we discussed, you need to begin again and identify the most useful search strategies to find appropriate sources about academic or journalistic accounts of instructional practices inside NYC charter schools. I recommend that you start with Education Full Text database, Education Week archives, NYTimes full text, and Gotham Schools to find in-depth accounts of teaching practices.
To continue your search, look for how different databases categorize entries on “charter schools” by location (such as NYC), and whether you can narrow those that also include “teaching” or “curriculum” in the entry.