Some benefi ts of sending your child to an NYC charter school
BY JOE PANTORNO
Throughout the course
of the pandemic, many New
York City students and parents
have had to adjust to online
learning while school doors
were shut. Some parents later
opted to send their child back
to school buildings, masked up
and ready to learn.
Even though New York was
able to fl atten the curve initially,
there still remains the
question of what school will
look like for the remainder of
2021 school year as the vaccine
becomes available. However, it
isn’t too early for parents to
plan ahead for next year and
beyond when school doors reopen.
The school choice movement
has provided parents in
New York City and across the
United States with more options
on where to send their
children.
While the only legitimate
options in the past were public,
private and homeschooling,
charter schools have become a
viable and attractive option for
a child’s education.
A charter school is an independently
operated public
school that usually operates
under a contract with a government
agency or nonprofi t organization.
It allows the school to
not have to follow a mandated
curriculum, thus designing
their classrooms and lessons to
fi t individual students’ needs.
While the idea of charter
schools has been met with
plenty of criticism, there are
overarching advantages of
sending your child to such an
institution:
Adapting to challenges
Within today’s educational
landscape lies the growing
challenge of properly informing,
preparing and developing
students who learn and grow
under different circumstances.
There are four ways children
can properly learn and
retain the material of their
coursework: visual, auditory,
reading/writing and kinesthetic.
Charter schools can provide
a perfect match.
If your child is struggling
with learning disabilities that
withhold them from fl ourishing
at public or private schools,
there are charter school options.
If your child is advanced
and is not being challenged
enough in most group settings,
there are charter school options.
Inclusive Environment
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, M 24 ARCH 19-25, 2021 BTR
Specialization with no
tuition
Charter schools provide the
best of both schooling worlds.
While they are independent,
they still must have licensed
teachers; students must
take state-mandated tests; and
underperforming institutions
can be closed — much like most
public and private schools.
But the ability to tweak the
curriculum and offer specifi c
courses that set it apart from
public schooling.
The best part? Parents
won’t have to pay tuition as
they would in private school.
Charters are funded on tax
dollars.
They outperform public
schools
Looking at the data, New
York City charter schools are
putting up better numbers
than public schools.
According to the New York
Department of Education, public
school students grades 3-8
were 47 percent profi cient in
English Language Arts (ELA)
and 46 percent profi cient in
math in 2019.
Per NYCCharterSchools.
org, charter schools in the city
provided much higher profi -
ciency numbers last year.
ELA profi ciency rates for
students grades 3-8 were at 57.3
percent while math profi ciency
rates were at 63.87 percent.
Those numbers result in
more learning gains, allowing
students to learn more material
in the same amount of
time as public school curriculum
allows.
Photo by Getty Images
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