Student uniforms, small classes, and rituals such as a morning drum roll help foster a sense of community. They are also all required to teach summer school and to accept phone calls at night from students seeking assistance with their homework. Given the flexibility of a charter school, KIPP makes every attempt to accommodate teachers' needs, including providing higher salaries than those of district teachers, cell phones for receiving students' phone calls, and quick response to teachers' requests for curriculum enhancements and supplies. Various partnerships are developing out of these groups, like the local high school in Lowell, Massachusetts and Middlesex Community College. They designed a campus-based program to encourage high school dropouts to complete their education utilizing the college library, state of the art computer and science labs, and professors.
Some students are even dual-enrolled in community college classes.
Charter schools tend to be smaller in size, between 120 and 400 students. Unlike magnet schools that are selective and require entrance exams, charter schools serve all students, regardless of past academic performance. They use lotteries to ensure fairness when there are more applicants than seats. Charter schools are providing alternatives to help more students succeed and they differ as much as the needs of the students they serve. Some are more job oriented, some are based on the arts, and there are even a few charter schools that exist solely on the internet where its students work from home.