|
Adequate Yearly Progress
Each state is required to develop and implement a statewide accountability system that will ensure that all schools and districts make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as defined by NCLB.
Alternative School
A school based on a non-traditional or new educational philosophy. A wide range of philosophies and teaching methods are offered by alternative schools; some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientations, while others are more ad-hoc assemblies of teachers and students dissatisfied with some aspect of mainstream education.
Attractor
A school that offers certain programs or themes to attract suburban students to urban schools and urban students to suburban schools. In attractor programs, a traditional curriculum is offered in addition to a selection of classes that focus on themes such as information technology, American Sign Language, and culinary arts.
Career Academies (aka Small Learning Communities)
Career academies are small learning communities within larger high schools offering a college preparatory curriculum that weaves specific career-themed information into academic coursework. Courses incorporate information about fields including engineering, health, education, media, and public services and are taught by a team of teachers from different subject areas.
Charter Authorizer
A state's charter school law determines the entities within the state that bear responsibility for approving, granting, and managing charter contracts and ensuring that charter schools comply with the state and federal accountability requirements.
Charter School
(See Dependent Charter School and Independent Charter School)
Concurrent Enrollment
High school students attend college classes and receive both high school
and postsecondary credit. Twenty-one states have comprehensive dual enrollment programs.
Controlled Choice
A school district model that provides choice while maintaining ethnic and racial integration. Controlled choice plans do away with neighborhood attendance districts, create zones, and allow families to choose within their zone, provided that admitting students to their school of choice does not upset the racial and ethnic balance at that school.
Desegregation
The process of ending racial segregation. Desegregation was long a focus of the civil rights movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), particularly desegregation of the school systems. Over 500 school districts still operate to some extent under a court-mandated desegregation decree.
Dependent Charter School
Similar to traditional public schools that do not exercise autonomy on budget, staffing, and school policies, dependent charter schools are totally administered by and integrated into a local school district's operations.
District Infrastructure
School district services, institutions, and facilities that range from curriculum and instruction support to operational management, personnel management, transportation systems, buildings, budget and finance.
English Language Learners
The term English language learner (ELL) indicates a person who is in the process of acquiring English and has a first language other than English. Other terms commonly found in the literature include language minority students, limited English proficient (LEP), English as a second language (ESL), and culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD).
Independent Charter School
A publicly funded school that operates independently of the local school district. In accordance with an enabling state statute, it receives a charter exempting it from selected state or local rules and regulations. A charter school may be newly created, or it may previously have been a public or private school.
Informed Choice
A process to empower parents with the information they need to make decisions about the school their child will attend and to understand the consequences of their decisions. Informed choice refers to a parents' ability to access, understand, and use information about making school choices because the information is designed to help all parents navigate it competently and successfully.
Interdistrict Choice
A school choice plan that allows students to attend a school outside their district of residence, usually at no additional cost to the parent. Districts choose this plan to expand choice options for their students.
Intradistrict Choice
A school choice plan where students can choose to attend any school within their district of residence.
Magnet School
A public school that draws students interested in specific subjects such as academics or the arts from the surrounding region (typically a school district or a county). Magnet schools were originally started in the hope that their geographically open admissions would end racial segregation and decrease de facto segregation of schools in poorer areas by offering a more enticing educational program.
Montessori Method
An educational method that emphasizes self-directed learning activities for the student. Maria Montessori, an Italian educator, developed the method in the early 1900’s which is implemented primarily in preschool and elementary classes.
Neighborhood Schools
Neighborhood schools are located in the same community as the students who attend, and typically within walking distance. Proponents for the resurgence of neighborhood schools (versus themed schools that often require transit for students) believe that, among many other benefits, neighborhood schools can promote social and civic engagement in a community.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
In 2001, President George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), a law first passed in 1965. NCLB reflects bipartisan commitment to ensure that all students, regardless of their background, receive a quality education. To reach this goal, NCLB refocuses federal education programs on the principles of stronger accountability for results, more choices for parents and students, greater flexibility for states and school districts, and the use of research-based instructional methods.
Open Enrollment
Parents can choose among schools in a district, or even among districts. Thirty-three states have interdistrict open enrollment laws, and 15 require districts to offer open enrollment.
Parent Information and Resource Center (PIRC)
The U.S. Department of Education created the first PIRCs in 1995 to provide parents, schools, and organizations working with families with training, information, and technical assistance to understand how children develop and what they need to succeed in school. Today, more than 70 PIRCs operate in almost all of the states across the nation. They work closely with parents, educators, and community organizations to strengthen partnerships so that children can reach high academic standards.
Receiving School
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) provides parents of children at Title I schools that have not made adequate yearly progress (AYP) the option of transferring their child to a school that has achieved AYP for at least two years and is likely to achieve AYP in the future. If parents choose the option to transfer their child, the school to which the child transfers is known as "the receiving school."
School Within A School
A separate and autonomous unit formally authorized by the district board of education to plan and operate its own program with its own staff and students, and its own separate budget. Typically, a school within a school must negotiate the use of common space (gym, auditorium, playground) with a host school, and defer to the building principal on matters of safety and building operation.
Single Gender Education
An educational practice where females and males attend classes separately within a school or where only females or males can attend a school. In some instances, curriculum and instructional methods specific to female and male learning styles as informed by research are used.
Small Schools
The small schools movement offers strategies to improve the attendance and achievement of high school students. Typically operating within larger high schools, small schools serve a maximum of 400 students and offer thematic curriculum designed to foster “connectedness” among students based on their similar interests. The result is increased graduation and college attendance rates, particularly for minority and low-income students.
Thematic Curriculum
The organization of a curriculum around macro "themes" that integrate basic disciplines like reading, math, and science with the exploration of a broad subject, such as communities, rain forests, river basins, the use of energy, and so on. Thematic instruction usually occurs within an entire grade level of students or throughout an entire school, such as a magnet school organized around an "attractor" theme. It seeks to put the teaching of cognitive skills in the context of a real-world subject that is both specific enough to be practical, and broad enough to allow creative exploration.
Unitary Status
"Unitary" is a term courts use to describe a school system that has made the transition from a segregated or "racially dual" system to a desegregated or “unitary” system. The Supreme Court has held that a declaration of unitary status is only appropriate after a hearing at which the defendant school district bears the burden of proving that it has eliminated all vestiges of past discrimination.
Virtual School
A virtual school offers courses primarily or entirely with online technology. Student and teacher communication typically occurs through a web system developed for course delivery. Many different models are in use. In some instances, a student can enroll and complete all coursework through a virtual school; in others, a student enrolls in courses that are supplementary to his/her coursework in a “traditional” school.
|
