What is a Charter School?
According to the Charter Schools Act that was passed by California legislature in 1992, a charter school is a public school that is intended to operate independently of the traditional school district structure in order to provide educators, parents and students a method to accomplish the following:
- Improve the learning experience for all students.
- Encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods.
- Present educators with new professional opportunities that allow them to assume responsibility for the learning program at the resource center.
- Provide parents and students with expanded educational choices within the public school system. Hold schools accountable for student performance and provide the schools with a method to change from rule-based to performance-based accountability systems.
- Provide vigorous competition within the public school system to stimulate continual improvements in all public schools.
How does a Charter School work?
Alta Vista Innovation High School uses a Personalized Learning charter school model that allows the learning program to be tailored to each student’s individual needs and interests. Each student focuses on one or two subjects at a time and visits the resource center to meet with teachers for instruction and exams. Most of the schoolwork is completed at home.