Admittance to charter schools is based on lottery. The largest single-site charter school in the country is the Boston Renaissance Charter School, founded in 1995 with only 637 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Now, Boston Renaissance serves a total of 1,254 children in grades K-8, with a waiting list of 1,018. Like all charter schools, it has more autonomy than traditional public institutions. For example, the school has broad freedom and leverage in dealing with teachers unions and, consequently, a far greater ability to hire and fire educators.
Charter schools have the opportunity to select teachers who have a similar philosophy.
A Boston Reniassance teacher displays the painting of the school principal during art class. Teachers at Boston Renaissance also have more room to express their individual creativity than do their counterparts in public schools. In addition to bringing their own ideas to the classroom, many teachers use curriculum provided by Edison Schools, the corporate manager of Boston Renaissance, and often participate in the network of 113 schools managed by Edison. You can find out what other teachers, people who are using the exact same curriculum as you, are doing across the country so you can share ideas. In addition to an innovative basic curriculum produced by years of Edison research, Renaissance also has a strong curriculum in the arts.