Charters and the Contract Conversation
A Groundbreaking Case Study
What happens when teachers and management have the opportunity to create a contract from scratch? At my school, the Conservatory Lab Charter School in Boston, we recently had that opportunity, and discovered what is possible when there is a shared school mission and no previous binding agreements. We had the chance to start fresh.
Our groundbreaking contract, including performance-based pay, was possible precisely because we are a charter school.
Though charters were intended to be laboratories for innovation and research, too many district educators view them as the enemy. Yet, having served as a superintendent for two large urban school systems—in Providence, R.I., and in San Antonio—I can say that I have never viewed charters as the foe. In fact, in 1995, I proposed the creation in San Antonio of a charter district, in collaboration with nearby Trinity University, that would operate within...
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