Charter schools booming in the suburbs

With only five days of school left, advanced-math fifth graders at Renaissance Academy-Edison Charter School considered a new concept: how to compute the surface area of a juice box.

"I know you're up for the challenge," said teacher Shari Benowitz, 31.

The children, wearing red polos and khakis, huddled in small groups to strategize as Benowitz leaned over them and offered encouragement.

Such rigorous curriculum and individual attention, administrators say, have boosted the Chester County school's standardized math and reading scores substantially since it opened in 2000. Last month, the Center for Education Reform recognized that improvement by naming Renaissance a national charter of the year.

"It was progress over time," said Jeanne Allen, president of the Washington advocacy group, which supports charters. "There was just no question they were exceptional."

Once found almost exclusively in urban centers with dismal academic options, charters such as Renaissance - located in a bucolic corner of the solid-performing Phoenixville Area School District - have become increasingly common in the suburbs.

Chester County in particular is a charter hotbed. Outside of Philadelphia, where 56 charters serve 27,500 students, the county leads the region with an enrollment of nearly 3,600 in seven schools. Graystone Academy in Coatesville focuses on a classical education; Sankofa Academy in West Chester on African American culture. Renaissance has a college-prep curriculum with extra helpings of dance and drama.

Only the city of Camden, where about 2,300 students attend a half-dozen charters, and Delaware County, with about 2,600 at three schools in the troubled Chester Upland district, come close.

The reasons for the suburban boom are as varied as the schools themselves.

Parents value choice, even when districts are strong, education experts say. Some are drawn to a special curriculum or an extended school day.

"People just go to the program that works for them," said Timothy Daniels, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools in West Chester.

In fast-growing Chester County - where the school-age population has ballooned 28 percent since 1990, according to the Pennsylvania State Data Center - the popularity of charters may have another explanation, experts say.

These self-managed public schools, which are approved by their local districts, typically offer the small enrollment associated with private institutions, but without tuition.