Serving Our Children : Charter Schools and the Reform of American Public Education

by Chavous, Kevin P.

• ISBN13: 9781931868693
• ISBN10: 1931868697
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-04-01
• Publisher: Intl Pub Marketing

Summary

Public education is failing America's children--especially those in poor urban areas. D.C. Council member Kevin Chavous has long been an outspoken advocate for educational reform that serves the needs of all of our children. In Serving Our Children, Mr. Chavous, who has been at the forefront of the charter school movement, explores what his city has learned from the charter school experience and what it means to American public education as a whole. In just five short years, under Mr. Chavous's leadership, charter schools in Washington went from zero to nearly forty and currently enroll about 11,000 students in six schools. These schools provide more than traditional public schools can--wrap around services to poor children who are hungry, inadequately clothed, lacking sleep, and sometimes exposed to physical and emotional violence. Mr. Chavous uses D.C.'s charter schools to demonstrate how their greater flexibility and autonomy allows them to better serve the social, economic, language, and educational needs of students and their families--services these children need to succeed in school. He admits that charter schools are not without their critics and explains why, but he argues that these schools are an important model for the educational reform that must take place if our children are to carry America into a brighter future.

Author Biography

Kevin P. Chavous is the Ward Seven Representative on the Council of the District of Columbia where he is Chair of the Committee on Education, Libraries and Recreation

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Introduction	1	(4)
CHAPTER 1 The Last Civil Rights Challenge	5	(9)
CHAPTER 2 Education in the Nation's Capital	14	(12)
CHAPTER 3 Using the Community as the Hub	26	(7)
CHAPTER 4 Problems in Public Education	33	(38)
CHAPTER 5 The Politics of Education	71	(6)
CHAPTER 6 Innovation by Charter	77	(13)
CHAPTER 7 Six Exceptional D.C. Charter Schools	90	(41)
CHAPTER 8 Charters and Challenges	131	(8)
CHAPTER 9 Revolution and Education	139	(14)
CHAPTER 10 Hope for the Future	153	(4)
APPENDIX Washington, D.C. Public Charter Schools	157	(2)
Notes	159	(12)
References	171	(2)
Acknowledgments	173	(4)
Index	177