While it's school building looks like something straight out of Harry Potter, Washington Leadership Academy is best-known for its visionary thinking. One of only 10 schools in the U.S. to receive a $10 million grant from XQ: The Super School Project, the public charter is immersing its mostly minority, low-income students in technology--giving…

The natural beauty that surrounds many rural schools hides the troubling realities that students in these schools frequently live in poverty and the schools struggle to give these students the education they need. James A. Bryant believes that one source of the problem is the fact that so many school reforms are designed with urban schools in…

A commitment to either traditional or innovative education practice virtually defines the professional identities of most educators, writes Ferrero. Traditional practices emphasize basic skills, ability grouping, subject-matter disciplines, academic mastery, standardized testing, and a canonical curriculum; innovative practices focus on…

Commitment is combined to classic learning with innovative citizenship education grounded in public debate by the Northtown Academy campus of Chicago International Charter School (CICS). KIPP Academics rely on academic pressure and tough love to help students meet state standards.

View Park Preparatory High School, a charter school serving low-income urban students in Los Angeles, makes critical thinking the center of its literacy curriculum. The school's literacy program has a single, measurable goal: By graduation, every student will be able to write a 500-word sustained argument free of mechanical error, reflecting his…

A charter school has focused on technology and arts in order to help urban students develop a strong intellectual, moral, environmentally conscious and artistic foundation. The different policies and programs used by the Arts and Technology Academy Public Charter School (ATA), Washington, D.C., to educate students are discussed.