Kafer: This Colorado charter school is one of the best

Take the hard road. That’s what a radical of Ft. Collins parents did successful the aboriginal 1990s erstwhile they sought to unfastened an simple schoolhouse with a rigorous, content-rich curriculum. After years of wrestling with the Poudre School District, they succeeded successful opening Liberty Common School successful autumn 1997 and adding a precocious schoolhouse a small much than a decennary later. Their hard has enactment paid disconnected ever since.

This year, Liberty Common students achieved the highest composite SAT people of immoderate nationalist schoolhouse successful the state. Last year, Liberty Common students broke the SAT grounds for Colorado nationalist schools. On different indicators of world excellence similar passing Advanced Placement exams, the graduation rate, and show connected authorities proficiency tests, Liberty Common students excel.

What is the concealed of this school’s success? I asked erstwhile Congressman Bob Schaffer, the headmaster and 1 of the school’s founders. He cited the consciousness of assemblage the schoolhouse enjoys nether the state’s charter schoolhouse instrumentality and the school’s rigorous program and pedagogy arsenic the main reasons Liberty Common students bash truthful well.

Charter schools are nationalist schools that are governed independently by a committee of directors nether a declaration with the district. The school’s committee chooses the curriculum, hiring and compensation practices, and pedagogy.  Charter schools indispensable beryllium tuition-free, adhere to civilian rights and information laws, administer authorities assessments, and enroll students connected a non-discriminatory basis. Since Gov. Roy Romer signed the Charter Schools Act successful 1993, the fig of specified schools has risen to much than 260 serving implicit 125,000 students and growing. Since the commencement of the pandemic, charter schoolhouse enrollment has accrued by 3.8% portion enrollment successful accepted nationalist schools decreased by 4.6% according to the Colorado League of Charter Schools.

One origin successful the occurrence of charter schools is that parents, students, and teachers take to beryllium there. Thus charter schoolhouse communities thin to beryllium unified successful their committedness to the school’s methods and purpose. “Market-based approaches to acquisition enactment everyplace they’re allowed to exist, and this is surely existent successful the lawsuit of our school. Choice empowers parents to marque the champion enactment for their children based connected everything from world philosophy, behavioral expectations and subject (such arsenic formal codes and quality education), teacher quality, premises security, extra-curricular offerings, and different important factors,” explained Schaffer.

An effectual attack to educating young minds is arsenic important. Liberty Common uses the classical acquisition exemplary which cultivates knowledge, reasoning, and connection done the survey of language, math, literature, history, science, philosophy, ethics, and the arts.

Students successful simple grades summation a steadfast instauration from the content-rich Core Knowledge Curriculum and from the survey of Latin. “That empowers our students to incredibly precocious levels of proficiency successful their English-language-usage skills,” Schaffer said. “Their grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and creativity acceptable them up for sustained occurrence successful overseas languages, penning and composition, and wide connection skills. We person akin experiences with our sequenced approaches to our K-12 economics program, Singapore Math, and quality education.”

Of the apical 10 Colorado precocious schools by 2020 SAT composite scores, six are charter schools that usage the Core Knowledge Curriculum successful the little grades; and of these, 4 are besides founded connected the classical acquisition model. Two accepted nationalist precocious schools, a nationalist enactment school, and a nationalist charter schoolhouse for talented students besides scored successful the apical ten.

The quality of the charter schoolhouse instrumentality is that schools similar Liberty Common proceed to unfastened to conscionable the demand. Merit Academy, a classical, Core Knowledge charter schoolhouse opened successful Woodland Park this August aft an aggravated twelvemonth of hard enactment by parents and educators. Their persistence and effort are each the much commendable fixed the challenges of the pandemic. They took the hard road, and they won’t regret it.

Krista L. Kafer is simply a play Denver Post columnist. Follow her connected Twitter: @kristakafer.

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