Proud to Be Different: Ethnocentric Niche Charter Schools in America

This is a book about ethnocentric niche charter schools. What are they? When did they first appear? From where did the term come? How do they differ from regular charter schools and from district-run traditional public schools? Each subject chapter was created by a team consisting of at least one educational researcher and at least one charter school practitioner. The goal is to make the book readable for everyone (policymakers, parents, teachers, older students) while providing a framework of rigor from which to view each charter school. Hence: the teams. We took special pains to create a book which exhibits the objectivity of the educational researcher while, at the same time, inviting the reader into each school by painting a human picture of its ethos. Each chapter contains a description of the school told by people who actually taught or learned or sent their children there.

“Ethnocentric-niche public charter schools are only a small percentage of the growing number of public charter schools in the United States, but they provide opportunities for instructional innovation to enhance student learning, parental engagement and involvement, and partnerships with community organizations. Through an intriguing set of case studies, the book describes schools trying new educational strategies to provide high-quality public school experiences to students. Additionally, this book explores the primary issues raised regarding ethnocentric-niche schools, such as whether these schools will assimilate students into the larger set of democratic beliefs and values that public schools have been expected to instill and whether these schools cross legal boundaries. The book serves as a great resource for the debate on the purpose and function of public schools.”

Bob Fox and Nina Buchanan have penned an intriguing and useful new book on a rarely-examined dimension of charter schooling, offering a thoughtful look at schools that celebrate a particular ethic, culture, or linguistic heritage.  Building on a decade of their own inquiry, they explain how these schools fit within the larger framework of charter school policy and the tensions that can ensue. This is a volume that points to both the possibilities and some of the attendant challenges posed by the charter model and that promises to be invaluable reading for those engaged in charter school practice, policy, or authorizing. -- Frederick Hess, author of Letters to a Young Education Reformer; director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute
Contemporary debate about charters and school choice is dominated by the market metaphor and attention to large-scale management organizations offering standard education models designed to attract substantial enrollments. Fox and Buchanan remind us in this book about a different side of the choice movement, one rooted in social values more than economic transactions and that aims to meet different cultures on their own terms. It’s a valuable counterpoint. -- Jeffrey R. Henig, professor of political science and education, Teachers College, Columbia University, author of “Spin Cycle: How Research is Used in Policy Debates, The Case of Charter Schools”
-- Nina Rees, President & CEO, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

Robert Fox, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Hawaii, is Chair of the American Education Research Association’s School Choice Special Interest Group, a Consulting Editor of the Journal of School Choice and co-Chairs the International Research Conference on School Choice and Reform which takes place every January in Florida.Nina Buchanan, an educational psychologist, is a Professor Emerita from the University of Hawaii. She has taught in grades kindergarten through graduate school students and is a founder of the West Hawaii Explorations Academy Public Charter School, a distinguished award-winning grades 6 - 12 school situated in the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii. She is a nationally recognized expert who has published articles on school choice, project-based learning and gifted and talented education.

This is a book about ethnocentric niche charter schools. What are they? When did they first appear? From where did the term come? How do they differ from regular charter schools and from district-run traditional public schools? Each subject chapter was created by a team consisting of at least one educational researcher and at least one charter school practitioner. The goal is to make the book readable for everyone (policymakers, parents, teachers, older students) while providing a framework of rigor from which to view each charter school. Hence: the teams. We took special pains to create a book which exhibits the objectivity of the educational researcher while, at the same time, inviting the reader into each school by painting a human picture of its ethos. Each chapter contains a description of the school told by people who actually taught or learned or sent their children there.

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