Charter School Better?

             Thomas Edison Charter School located in North Logan is a publically funded school that educates several Smithfield resident elementary and middle school students.

 The school teaches the Spalding Method for its language arts programs stating that it encourages the students to have higher levels of reasoning and critical thinking, the schools Director of Instruction Jamie Lewis said.

 Along with teachers being state certified, they must also take three additional years of Spalding training.  

             Teachers, parents and students are encouraged to have a close niche relationship with a minimum of four hours volunteer time from parents each month is expected, said Melani Kirk, another Director of Instruction. 

             “Really it is just up to the preference of the parent on what school they feel their kids will excel best in,” Birch Creek Elementary Principal Trudy Wilson said. Parents can be just as involved whatever school they go to, she said.

             Both instructional directors help the teachers with curriculum and classroom management and have past experience teaching elementary education, Kirk said. They have weekly visits to the classrooms to monitor and access any changes needed.

             The Charter school teaches Saxon curriculum math to its student’s one grade level above what is required by the state, Lewis said. The spelling level is taught at two grade levels above average.

             Although the Charter school teaches higher levels, test scores do not prove it to be more successful than Cache District elementary schools.

Thomas Edison scored 11 percent lower on language arts proficiency and eight percent lower on math proficiency than Sunrise Elementary in Smithfield, according to the most recent test scores from the Utah State Office of Education.

The Charter school does have its perks though.

The student per teacher ratio is about 3 less children than the average Smithfield elementary and middle school, according to the Utah State Office of Education. The Charter school has a full-time aide helping in each kindergarten to third grade classroom and one aide per grade thereafter.

“She has really enjoyed it,” Ashley McKnight said about her daughter who is in kindergarten at the Charter school. “I have been pretty impressed with their curriculum and the adult to child ratio in each classroom.”

Others have mixed feeling about the Charter school.

“My daughter went there for three years. They were great, but it was horrible for her to go to the local middle school,” Taunacy Horton said. “She was so used one-to-one help from the math teacher and aide that she has really struggled with math this year.”

             “I decided against the Charter school for my seven-year-old quintuplets,” Horton said.