My suggestion is simple. We can erase the battle lines. We can suspend the name calling. Perhaps there’s no need to fight.

I propose that independent charter schools and traditional public schools can work together to improve educational outcomes for all students. Indeed, independent charter schools and traditional public schools can not only co-exist (even in the same buildings), but can also learn from each other and become very effective collaborators. The fact is that independent, “mom and pop” charter schools are uniquely positioned to design and showcase effective practices that other schools, including public school districts and traditional public schools, can adapt to improve student outcomes at their schools. 

From the outset, charter schools were envisioned to be “engines of innovation” that would stimulate change across the entire educational system. The original design for public charter schools was very straight-forward. Charter schools are granted freedom to foster innovation and, in return, are subjected to heightened accountability by their authorizers and/or state educational departments. As Professor Gary Miron of the College of Education and Human Development at Western Michigan University says in a filmed interview on the home page of this website, “The original mission of charter schools…what was intended in the 1990s when we first started seeing charter school laws passed, [was that charter schools] were going to be locally-run and innovative.” I would argue that the independent “mom and pop” segment of the charter school community remains “locally run and innovative,” and that the innovations established in these charter schools can be shared and adapted not just by other charter schools, but by traditional public schools as well.

Let me point to an outstanding example. In the economically distressed community of East Harlem, NY, the New York Center for Autism Charter School (NYCA Charter School) shares a public school building with PS 50, and New York City public school. The NYCA Charter School is the only charter school in New York—and one of very few schools in the country—that provides academic programs exclusively to students with autism or other severe developmental disabilities. Operating literally in the middle of a large urban public elementary/middle school, the NYCA Charter School has taken a proactive approach to connecting and collaborating with the public school with which it is “co-located.” While many charter schools “co-located” with traditional public schools in New York City school buildings have encountered conflict (and, indeed, been the subject of intense litigation), the NYCA Charter School has developed a positive and collaborative relationship with its traditional public school host. The result has been a unique “win-win” experience that could serve as a model for charter schools and traditional public schools across the country.

So what makes the NYCA Charter School relationship with its co-located public school work?

Well, it starts with the charter school’s proactive approach to building mutual understanding and respect with the co-located school. As NYCA Charter School founder and Board member has said, it was important for the charter school to “become part of the community”  and “to make bridges” to the traditional public school. The charter school has also worked hard to share its promising practices with the co-located traditional public school.

 At the heart of the charter school-traditional public school collaboration is an innovative program called    the Peer Mentoring Program. This program trains students in the traditional public school to work with students with autism and supports them in interacting and helping the charter school’s students.  A key part of the program is a presentation by the participating traditional public school students to their fellow traditional public school students about the experience of working with children with autism. As the program’s coordinator Moira Cray says, the program has yielded benefits for the charter school and the traditional public school.

 What’s most impressive about the NYCA Charter School’s Peer Mentor Program—in addition to the hugely positive impact on the charter school’s students—is the positive change the program has promoted in the culture of the co-located traditional public school. As described in the following video, the program has not only helped the charter school’s students with autism interact with students from the traditional public school, but it has also promoted increased understanding and tolerance within the traditional public school.

 It’s clear from the experience of the NYCA Charter School and PS 50 in New York City that charter schools and traditional schools can not only “get along,” but can thrive through interaction and collaboration.  Obviously, it takes serious commitment on the part of each entity. It also requires the charter school to make a concerted effort to share information and, as appropriate, resources and programs with the traditional public school. Ideally, the charter school will become part of the “community” of the traditional public school, and vice versa.

So let’s consider once again that charter schools can be “engines of innovation”  that will establish promising practices for other schools—including traditional public schools—to implement. Let’s consider once again that charter schools and traditional public schools can work together to improve student achievement.

And with this understanding, let’s try to establish new ways for charter schools and traditional public schools to work together to help our children succeed.

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This blog post is part of the Charter Notebook, sponsored by the Network of Independent Charter Schools, a project of the Center for Educational Innovation - Public Education Association.

The views expressed in Charter Notebook blogs represent the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Center for Educational Innovation-Public Education Association or the U.S. Department of Education.