Chapter 4: Schools as the Workplace for Students and Teachers

I worked with Sarah, Brad, Christina, and Alisha on "Building a School". We decided to create a charter school, because it is an ideal school for teachers. On picking to create this type of school, we had no idea that our school and similar it would be to other schools in the U.S.

There are four key areas on which we compared the schools:

• Staff and Organization: The Clara Barton Charter School compared to other schools in the U.S. showed that the organization of the school staffs were extremely similar. With charter schools, principals, assistant superintendents, and chains of commands are the "top dogs". With other schools in the U.S. it is the same. The organization chart, line relationships, chains of command, and staff relationships are all similar in comparison to charter schools. However, with charter schools, the community has a much larger say in how the schools are run.
• School District Relationship with the State: With schools in the U.S., the state usually determines the district of the school by the number of schools within the school district. Extremely small districts may have as few as one or two schools. The largest school districts will have two hundred or more schools. Seeing as how we created our charter school within the state of New York, and considering its size, there would be many schools and the organization chart of the roles and functions of the school would be similar and extensive compared to that of other schools in the U.S.
• Role of the Federal Government: The federal government within U.S. schools has increasingly become engaged with and increasingly directive about what states, school districts, and schools should be doing. For the most part, though, states are responsible for expectations of education within their schools. With our charter school, the federal government plays an extremely small role within Clara Barton. The state has more of a say in what is being taught. Teachers are able to expand their curriculum with little reprimanding of the government.
• How Schools are Paid for: Schools within the U.S. require a large amount of money be found each year. Revenues are raised which states, school districts, and schools spend the money, with most of it being spent on instruction. The money of for the funding schools come from income, sales, and property taxes. With our charter school, Clara Barton is funded by the state of New York, the community, parents, and sponsors who donate money.