I suppose we are lucky in that our daughter's experience with her charter school has been largely positive. Our neighborhood school had a terrible reputation, and I was lucky enough to get her in a charter school (by lottery, she got one of 12 open spots that had over 300 applicants for) that has one of the best reputations. Many of the teachers have been there since doors opened 14 years ago and only one has left since she started, and that was to move to care for an ailing family member. They do project based learning and they go on field trips weekly and has really opened my daughter up to new experiences. They're mixed classrooms (K/1, 2/3, etc.), which I was concerned would hold my daughter back when she was the younger group in the class, but she's learned a lot of responsibility in taking care of her younger classroom buddy and has learned to get along with kids of all ages in the school. The school is very diverse in culture, though I must admit as a single parent in nursing school working two part time jobs we are definitely one of the less financially stable families in the school. I felt very fortunate to get her in since I can't afford to move to a neighborhood that has a good school until I graduate in a couple years. There are a few negative things. Since they only get half the funding public schools do, the facility is older and small, but they spend a lot of time on projects and make it work. The fact that the lottery is open to everyone within the city school district means a lot of my daughter's friends live in different parts of town, making play dates a challenge and also a challenge for me to get her to school since there aren't school busses. There's less stability since they count on receiving the rest of the funding through fundraisers and donations to keep the doors open. And the one I'm most concerned about is when she transfers into middle school, there will likely be a big difference in teaching styles and classroom structure she'll have to adjust to. Also, I know there isn't a lot of economic diversity, and I'd guess this is due to a couple factors. One of those is a lot of lower class families either aren't as aware of options other than their neighborhood schools, aren't as concerned with education, or can't afford to self transport. The self transport is definitely a sacrifice as I have to drive my daughter to school, drive back across the river to park in a neighborhood, and then bus to the teaching hospital I go to school at as I can't afford parking up there. It's a heavy time burden on my already full schedule, but I'm not willing to sacrifice my daughter's education for my own. Thank you for your response and I hope you have many years of happiness!
trobo842 karma
I suppose we are lucky in that our daughter's experience with her charter school has been largely positive. Our neighborhood school had a terrible reputation, and I was lucky enough to get her in a charter school (by lottery, she got one of 12 open spots that had over 300 applicants for) that has one of the best reputations. Many of the teachers have been there since doors opened 14 years ago and only one has left since she started, and that was to move to care for an ailing family member. They do project based learning and they go on field trips weekly and has really opened my daughter up to new experiences. They're mixed classrooms (K/1, 2/3, etc.), which I was concerned would hold my daughter back when she was the younger group in the class, but she's learned a lot of responsibility in taking care of her younger classroom buddy and has learned to get along with kids of all ages in the school. The school is very diverse in culture, though I must admit as a single parent in nursing school working two part time jobs we are definitely one of the less financially stable families in the school. I felt very fortunate to get her in since I can't afford to move to a neighborhood that has a good school until I graduate in a couple years. There are a few negative things. Since they only get half the funding public schools do, the facility is older and small, but they spend a lot of time on projects and make it work. The fact that the lottery is open to everyone within the city school district means a lot of my daughter's friends live in different parts of town, making play dates a challenge and also a challenge for me to get her to school since there aren't school busses. There's less stability since they count on receiving the rest of the funding through fundraisers and donations to keep the doors open. And the one I'm most concerned about is when she transfers into middle school, there will likely be a big difference in teaching styles and classroom structure she'll have to adjust to. Also, I know there isn't a lot of economic diversity, and I'd guess this is due to a couple factors. One of those is a lot of lower class families either aren't as aware of options other than their neighborhood schools, aren't as concerned with education, or can't afford to self transport. The self transport is definitely a sacrifice as I have to drive my daughter to school, drive back across the river to park in a neighborhood, and then bus to the teaching hospital I go to school at as I can't afford parking up there. It's a heavy time burden on my already full schedule, but I'm not willing to sacrifice my daughter's education for my own. Thank you for your response and I hope you have many years of happiness!
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