Charter Schools and Minorities

An Examination of the Effectiveness of the Charter School Concept to Date

The nation's public schools are struggling to meet the challenges presented by the No Child Left Behind mandates, and charter schools have been suggested as one approach that holds the promise of providing public schools with the tools they need to succeed. According to one authority, "The Charter School concept has the potential to utterly transform public education" (n.p.). Unfortunately, this potential has not been realized to any appreciable degree in many such charter schools to date (Schmerler, 2002). To this end, this paper will provide a review of the relevant and peer-reviewed literature to determine how well charter schools are actually serving and meeting the needs of urban students of color. A comparison of the performance of the charter schools with the performance of public schools in educating students of color will be...
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