In the past, it has taken as long as 27 years - a whole generation of teachers - for some major teaching innovations to take hold in the current system of U.S. classrooms. However, at this point, the public has invested in reform for a decade. Citizens want to see improved schools, and pressures are building to accelerate education reform or abandon it altogether. Letting "somebody else" offer public education through Charter Schools could accelerate that rate of change and have enormous impact on how all schools operate. How charters are used in the future, however, may depend upon their success in states where they are first being tested. A closer look at these states may provide clues for the future of Charter Schools.
Posted on March 6, 1995
URL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/go/93-2PRES.HTM