What is a charter school?

Charter schools are tuition-free public schools — but the label tells you very little about what a child will actually experience. Here's what that means, and what Philip Fox Academy of LEARNing is designed to do differently.

In 1998, the Utah Legislature authorized charter schools as another kind of public school. Charter schools are tuition-free public schools. They teach Utah academic standards and operate within the public education system, but each operates under an approved charter that establishes its mission and educational model.

These labels tell us important things about funding, governance, and enrollment. They tell us much less about how a child will actually experience school.

A family's address can constrain their tuition-free public-school choices. Public charter schools offer another option: families can choose to apply based on the educational model rather than the school boundary surrounding their home.

Utah charter schools can be designed around different purposes, from innovative teaching methods to expanded learning opportunities. That means there is no single “charter-school model.”

Consider three Utah charter schools

• Spectrum Academy seeks to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and attributes to navigate the college and career of their choice.
• Salt Lake Arts Academy prepares students to become confident and creative builders of their future through arts and academics.
• Beehive Science & Technology Academy focuses on academic excellence and personal skills within an innovative STEM environment.

Same public-school structure. Very different schools. Families rarely choose a school for its governance structure. They choose based on what that structure makes possible for their child.

So, what is PFAL?

For 18 years, I've taught in public, charter, independent, and private schools. If working across sectors has taught me anything, it's this: school labels tell you very little about what actually happens inside classrooms.

Schools are messy. They're noisy. They're busy. Teachers are teaching while answering questions, redirecting attention, finding pencils, managing interruptions, managing behavior, assessing understanding, and trying to notice the student quietly disappearing in the back of the room — while being observed for their annual evaluation cycle.

I wanted to differentiate instruction. I cared deeply about it, but that didn't add to my capacity.

That's the opportunity I see in building a charter school: not simply giving the school a different label, but intentionally designing the conditions in which students learn and teachers teach.

At Philip Fox Academy of LEARNing, students will work toward the same Utah academic standards, but they won't necessarily have to travel the same instructional route to reach them.

Different environments. Shared standards. And that's where student agency comes in.

Agency isn't simply letting a student choose a seat, book, assignment, or whether they'd rather make a poster or slideshow. Agency is learning to understand what you need in order to learn well — and gradually becoming capable of making informed decisions about it.

PFAL is designed to give students and teachers different environments for different kinds of work, rather than expecting every kind of teaching and learning to happen in the same place, in the same way, all day long.

Philip Fox Academy of LEARNing

Professional Perspectives · philipfoxacademy.org