PROPOSAL

Proposal Matthias Bell Senior Sem A Block Mr. Coady 2/22/11

__Project__ For my hands-on project for my graduation project, I am going to create a documentary that presents information on the benefits and disadvantages of charter schools within the public school system. I will be working on this project at the schools I will be analyzing, Mastery Charter School Shoemaker Campus, and South Philadelphia High School to offer a contrasting opinion on the benefits of a charter school in comparison to that of a typical public school. I will be working with the administrations at both schools in order to prevent disruption, but more specifically, I will be working with Mr. Otis Hackney, principal of South Philadelphia High School, and Mr. Daniel Bell assistant principal of Mastery Charter School Shoemaker Campus. The product that will come from this project is a documentary showing the benefits and disadvantages of charter schools in the public school system that will be shown hopefully on the township network as a way to present the facts to the general public of Springfield Township. I will use interviews, research, images and experiences in my documentary to present the schools as they are, with as little bias as humanly possible. I will spend a portion of my time filming in the schools, doing interviews, meeting with students, and I will spend the remainder editing the video as a way to present the footage in an entertaining manner. I will need access to a mac computer, which can be found in Mr. Meder’s room. I will need limited assistance from Mr. Meder in the editing process, and will need several hours in class in order to edit the documentary.

__Research__ I am looking at the effectiveness of charter schools as a way of educating students in the public school system, and my essential question is “How are charter schools impacting the education of students within the public school system?” My brother is the assistant principal at Mastery Charter Shoemaker Campus, so I have had a lot of experience volunteering at his school, seeing first-hand what charter schools are doing for these kids. The community will benefit from this research because, as charter schools become a larger part of the public school system, our community should know more about their benefits and disadvantages to be better informed to make a better decision as to whether or not to use charter schools in this community. My brother has connections with the Department of Education, and I will use resources, such as the schools themselves, public records about test scores, and looking at graduation rates and college acceptance statistics. I will be contacting these resources through my connections with the two educators, Mr. Otis Hackney and Mr. Daniel Bell, hoping to learn the impact charter schools are having on the public school system.