In the United States, charter schools provide alternatives to "regular" public schools. Students may choose to enroll in a charter school instead of the school they were assigned to by their local school district. Unlike mostpublic schools, charters don't usually have an enrollment boundary and can recruit students from a largergeographic area. You can consider any charter school in your district (or even outside of it, depending on yourstate) for your child, regardless of where the school is located. Today, I'll present a brief introduction to basicfeatures, funding and monitoring practices of charter schools.
　　First of all, charter schools can't discriminate in their admissions process. But it is not always easy to enroll ina charter school. [ 1 ] Popular charters are often oversubscrabed and utilize a random method of chooseing studentssuch as a lottery When you apply to a charter school, ask about your chances of being admitted.
　　Charter schools come in many different shapes. [2] Some charters cater to specific populations,such asstudents with learning or behavior challenges, those who are academically oriented or students interested in thearts. Others offer a thematic or specialized curriculum. There are also charters that do not have any special focus,but simply provide an alternative to the regular public school. [3 ]Charters are more likely to found in urban areas, and they are three times as likely to be located in bigcities. In general, charters serve more low-income and minority students, although individual school populationsvary from one community to another and from one state to another.
　　Run by large and small companies, parents, .teachers, community groups and nonprofit organizations, charterscan also change management and might be started by one group and operated by others over time. Whenresearching a charter school, it's important to know who started it, who currently runs it, its philosophy andfinancial status.
　　[4] Most charters schools are new and small. The charter school movement began in the 1990s and has grownrapidly. Many charter schools are less than five years old. Most are small in size, serving fewer students andoffering smaller class sizes than regular public schools.
　　There are now charter school laws in 41 states in the U.S., plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and　more than 1 million students are currently enrolled in more than 3,600 charter schools.
　　Charter schools don't necessarily produce better academic results than regular public schools.
　　The research about charter school results is somewhat mixed. Some studies have shown that students makegreater academic gains in charter schools; other studies have not. Charter school regulations vary from one state toanother as do state-level achievement tests, which make it difficult to compare school results or draw conclusionson a national basis. Many people embrace the idea of charter schools because they give parents more choice, andare less concerned with whether this choice brings about any different results for students. Parents who choosecharters are often drawn to their small size and personalized learning environments, regardless of what the numberssay about academic performance.
　　[ 5 ] Similar toregular public schools, this funding is based on a formula for each child enrolled in the charter school. However,funding formulas vary from state to state and from school to school.
In some states, such as Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota and New Jersey, charters do not receive exactly the sameamount as other public schools because states and districts withhold administrative fees. In some states, likeCalifornia, additional funds are made available to charters to cover facilities and start-up costs.
　　Many charters have ambitious programs that are not fully funded by state/district formulas and engage in their　own fundraising to obtain grants and additional donations. [ 6 ] There is also a limited amoutlt of fodcral funding tohelp start new charter schools.
　　[ 7 ] Funding for facilities can be a challenge for charter schools, In some cases, districts provide free space forcharters and/or provide funding for charters to pay for facilities. But even with this support, charter schools oftenend up moving multiple times due to the difficulty of finding a permanent home. As you look at a charter school,be sure to ask about its facility status and whether it will need to move again in the future.
　　[18 ] Then, how are charter schools monitored? Authorizers are the entities that grant schools agreement to operate, and monitor their performance. [ 9 ] The authorizers vary.from stateto state may include
chareer boards, school boards and universities. While each state's charter law is a bit different as to what can causea school to be shut down, the key reasons schools dose are:
　　They can't recruit enough students.
　　They can't fred a stable space to operate.
　　[ 10 ] They can't manage their finances.While this sounds dramatic, in reality, authorizers rarely close down charters. Charters do close, mainly due to low enrollment, but not as often as you might think. When researching a charter school, find out who authorized it,and see if you can get a copy of the latest performance report generated by the authorizer. Some authorizers do veryin-depth performance reviews of their schools, so these reports can give you important insights about the school'slong-term viability.
　　Okay, that's all I want to say about charter schools. If you have any other questions, feel flee to ask me.
　　Now, you have 2 minutes to check your notes, and then complete the gap-filling task on Answer Sheet One in10 minutes.
【结构提示】
charter school是指特许公立学校，也可称为委办学校，是美国公立学校重建运动中的一种新形式，它运用市场化、民营化的机制对公共教育系统进行体制性重建，自1992年以来获得了长足的发展。委办学校在办学经费、规模、分类和立法等方面有其自身的特点，尤其在运营机制方面体现出自己的独特性。本篇讲座围绕委办学校展开讨论，共分为三部分。第一部分介绍了委办学校的特点。第二部分介绍了委办学校的资金来源，第三部分介绍了委办学校的监管制度。
【试题解析】
lottery。本题的出题点在举例处(such as)。本题询问委办学校录取程序的特点，已给出一条“没有歧视”，另一条是“随意的录取方式，就像_____一样”，讲座中提到Popular charters are oftenoversubscribed and utilize a random method of choosing students，such as a lottery．即：一些热门的委办学校总是供不应求，他们采取随意录取学生的方式，就像中彩票一样，故得答案lottery。