Our School: Searching for Community in the Era of Choice

Abstract

According to the National Center for Education Statistics' (n.d.) most recent figures, approximately 2 percent of children in the United States attend charter schools. Now consider Washington, DC, where the charter school phenomenon is so popular that over 44 percent of the city's youth are enrolled in a charter school rather than a traditional public or private institution (FOCUS, 2010). This causes one to wonder, when provided with this type of school choice, how do families make the decision to pursue the charter route over other options for their children's education? And what, if any, are the benefits of being an educator or administrator in a charter school over a traditional public school? In Our School, former high school teacher and current education consultant Sam Chaltain seeks to answer these questions. Presented in the vein of light-hearted investigative journalism, Our School follows Chaltain's personal experiences observing classrooms, talking with staff, and listening to families at two public elementary schools in Washington, DC, over the course of a year-one a first-year charter school and the other a ninety-year-old neighborhood school. Through a rich narrative that describes the thoughts, decision-making patterns, and challenges experienced by the schools' teachers, administrators, and prospective parents, Our School illustrates how the experiences of stake-holders in these two school settings can be both alike and distinct from one another. Divided into two parts-one for each semester-Our School leads its readers on a journey that starts just before the first day of school and carries the story of learning through to the conclusion of the academic year. While families are generally referenced throughout, Our School does not go into the personal details of parents and caretakers; instead, readers get a strong sense that the heart of this book resides in educators' experiences across the course of the year. The book introduces its large cast of practitioners in a humaniz-ing light that delves deeply into descriptions of their personal lives and professional motivations. For example, we learn that Molly is a first-year teacher who formerly worked in environmental policy. Uninspired by her previous career, she decided to make a change by accepting a job as a kindergarten teacher at Mundo Verde, a brand-new charter school. Similarly, we discover