Since 2002, more than thirty charter schools have opened in the state of Indiana. The movement, according to the Charter School Association of Indiana, is "a means whereby schools have the freedom to innovate and create systems that improve academic performance as well as meet the needs of individual learners." Currently, a group of 14 Ball State University students is working to help build a new charter school one Indiana community.
The group came together as a seminar, The Building of a Charter School, at the Virginia Ball Center for Creative Inquiry. Each semester, two interdisciplinary groups of Ball State students spend an entire semester at the VBC devoted to a specific, tangible project.
"It's an alternative to standard, brand-X education," Director of the VBC Joe Trimmer said of the seminars that take place at the VBC. "Here, students are working to make education have practical results," he said.
The VBC charter school seminar has spent the fall 2005 semester working with a "community partner" on a proposal for a new school, which will be submitted to the Ball State Office of Charter Schools on December 14. Though the charter school seminar's community partner does not wish to be publicly identified until the proposal's submission, Justen Infinito-Allocco, director of the charter school seminar described them as "a group of interested citizens in a mid-sized Indiana community." If the proposal is approved, the community partner will begin hiring teachers and preparing a facility, which they hope will open in fall 2007.
The proposed school's educational philosophy will place emphasis on individualized instruction that caters to each student's specific needs. It will draw from the Montessori Method, which is well-represented by educational theorist Maria Montessori's quote, "The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, 'The children are now working as if I did not exist.'" Ideally, students will be able to use the classroom setting to explore their own interests and passions.
The seminar will present its work and ideas Thursday at 5 p.m. in room 100 of the BSU Architecture Building. The end-of-semester showcase is open to the public and will consist of four exhibits, each one pertaining to a different aspect of the charter school project, followed by a formal presentation and a question and answer session.
An exhibit emphasizing curriculum will present a model classroom, which, according to junior English Education major Aaron Cunanan, is "a very open environment with room for students to situate themselves in the learning space as best fits their needs." A governance exhibit will present a history of charter schools in Indiana and educational issues, such as the No Child Left Behind act, while another exhibit will feature a model of the potential site for the school and for renovations that the facility will undergo. A finance exhibit will present information regarding the school's budget.
Several members of the seminar said that their experience at the Virginia Ball Center has been an equally if not more valuable-albeit very different-experience than a typical undergraduate semester at Ball State.
Senior architecture major Todd Adams said, "We've learned in a different way."
"This semester has definitely been more practical because we're actually dealing with a real-world client," he added.
Senior Legal Studies major Denise Cox agrees.
"I had the opportunity to learn things I never would have learned in my classes," she said. "I was able to use what I've learned in my major and apply it to practical life tasks."
As Trimmer puts it, students at the VBC are "authors of their own education." For the Building of a Charter School group, this educational policy is not only something they've experienced over the course of this semester; it's also and ideal that they'll be able to put to practice, and, hopefully, see to fruition in the lives of future students.
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