Proud to be Different

This is a book about ethnocentric niche charter schools. What are they? When did they first appear? From where did the term come? How do they differ from regular charter schools and from district-run traditional public schools? Each subject chapter was created by a team consisting of at least one educational researcher and at least one charter school practitioner. The goal is to make the book readable for everyone (policymakers, parents, teachers, older students) while providing a framework of rigor from which to view each charter school. Hence: the teams. We took special pains to create a book which exhibits the objectivity of the educational researcher while, at the same time, inviting the reader into each school by painting a human picture of its ethos. Each chapter contains a description of the school told by people who actually taught or learned or sent their children there.

Robert Fox, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Hawaii, is Chair of the American Education Research Association's School Choice Special Interest Group, a Consulting Editor of the Journal of School Choice and co-Chairs the International Research Conference on School Choice and Reform which takes place every January in Florida.Nina Buchanan, an educational psychologist, is a Professor Emerita from the University of Hawaii. She has taught in grades kindergarten through graduate school students and is a founder of the West Hawaii Explorations Academy Public Charter School, a distinguished award-winning grades 6 - 12 school situated in the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii. She is a nationally recognized expert who has published articles on school choice, project-based learning and gifted and talented education.

Introduction
The Growth of Ethnocentric Charter Schools
Robert A. Fox and Nina K. Buchanan
Chapter One
Kua O Ka La: A Hawaiian Culturally-Focused Charter School
Nina K. Buchanan, Robert A. Fox,
Susan L. Osborne and C. Puanani Wilhelm
Chapter Two
Restoring Native American Culture and Language through Public Education
Mark Blitz
Chapter Three
A Model for Educating African-American Students
Tanikiaa Orange and Sharroky Hollie
Chapter Four
A Case Study of Helenic Classical Charter School
Charisse Gulosino
Chapter Five
Immigrant Advantage: What Makes Does Science Academy Fly?
Robert Maranto, Kaan Camuz and John Franklin
Chapter Six
A Somali School in Minneapolis
Letitia E. Basford and Heather Megarry Traeger
Chapter Seven
A New Approach to Educating Latino English Language Learners
Brenda Martinez and Mark Blitz
Chapter Eight
Ethnocentric Niche Charter Schools: A View Through Legal and Policy Lenses
Suzanne E. Eckes and Kari A. M. Carr