What are Charter Schools?
Charter schools are innovative public schools accountable for student results and designed to deliver programs tailored to educational excellence and serving the needs of the communities they serve. Charter schools are one of the fastest and most successful educational reforms in the country and continue to grow each year.
How do St. HOPE Public Schools differ from traditional district public schools?
Choice: St. HOPE Public Schools gives families the opportunity to choose the school that best promotes their child's educational well-being, serves the needs of their community's students, and prepares the students to meet the challenges in the future.
Accountability: St. HOPE Public Schools was created to reach a high standard of student achievement, as well as perform to rigorous fiscal and managerial standards.
Freedom: St. HOPE Public Schools must adhere to the same major laws and regulations as all other public schools, however, they also have a certain freedom from the procedural road blocks that can get in the way of providing educational excellence. St. HOPE Public Schools can focus on setting and reaching high academic standards for their students.
Academic Quality: St. HOPE Public Schools makes sure every child has access to a quality education. With higher standards established by each school's charter, St. HOPE Public Schools must meet certain goals to stay open. Most other public schools stay in business no matter how poorly they perform.
Community: St. HOPE Public Schools engages local businesses and other organizations to help provide resources and services to the schools and their families. Nationwide, charter schools have a proven effect on the strength and safety of a community.
Sac Bee Editorial: Sac High turnaround can't be ignored
"On the scale of turnaround options, closing a school and reopening it as a charter is the most dramatic. It also is the most risky. But, as the Sacramento High experience has shown, it can bring big dividends for students in poorer neighborhoods, who too often are left behind."
To read this article in its entirety, click here.
Transformation High Schools: Lessons from Sacramento High
St. HOPE is proud to release a white paper, Transformation High Schools: Lessons from Sacramento High. In 2003, St. HOPE undertook one of the nation’s first efforts to transform a failing urban high school when it reinvented Sacramento High. The white paper outlines our story, results, lessons learned and plans for the future. The report further identifies critical expected outcomes for transformation high schools and describes how the St. HOPE model for success evolved. |