Eyes on the Curriculum: How One Charter School Resisted Test-Driven Pressures

Who would believe that Albert Shanker, the late, controversial president of the American Federation of Teachers, was one of the original backers of the charter school concept, publicizing the name and idea in his weekly "Where We Stand" column of July 10, 1988? Charter schools, unions, and public schooling were not always enemies. But, more than two decades later, the teams have changed, and the debate over charter schools has become so polarized as not to be productive. Critics on the left tend to lump all charter schools together and include them with the vouchermovement as a threat to public schools (even though charter schools are public schools—albeit ones that function with considerable autonomy from districts). The Right, for its part, uses charter schools to beat up unions and demonize teachers.