Download or read book The Charter School Experiment in Kansas City, Missouri written by Nancy Dietz Stancel and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1998, Missouri became one of 37 states to pass charter school legislation with the signing of Senate bill 781. In 1999, sixteen charter schools in Kansas City, Missouri were approved for operation. This represents the largest number of charter school aprovals in the nation, in the shortest time period after passage of a charter school bill. This study examined the political climate in Kansas City that permitted the successful passage of the Missouri charter school law. It compared the charter school movement to Katz's nineteenth century democratic localism model of education. The study answered the question of how well charter schools complied with Missouri charter school law. Compliance to student admissions and scholastic accountability criteria were the focus for the study. Interviews with charter school stakeholders were conducted to answer two questions: what were the major start-up problems for charter schools, and what were the perceived major success stories of charter schools? The scope of the study included Kansas City, Missouri charter schools that had applications approved in the 1999 school year. A combination of qualitative and quantitative data were gathered to examine the Kansas City charter school movement. Aggregate 1999/2000 district and state MAP scores, and individual charter school MAP scores were examined to determine whether the student population being recruited to attend charter schools was proportionate to students attending traditional KCMSD schools and whether the brightest children were being recruited away from the district. Report card 1999/2000 data on individual charter schools aided in comparing several variables between charter and traditional schools. Supporting documentation was drawn from several sources including Missouri Senate and House bills, reports from academic centers and foundations, local newspaper reports, charter school applications and sponsoring agency standards for approving charter schools. Qualitative data was drawn from interviews from charter school stakeholders including Missouri legislators, charter school sponsors, The Learning Exchange, charter school administrators and the Kansas City Missouri School board mdmbers