Located in Kansas City, Missouri, Academie Lafayette is a K-8 charter school that offers a high-quality education to students through a French immersion program in which students learn to speak French with daily instruction and practice in the language. Through the next series of blogs, the National Alliance will highlight charter schools’ efforts to offer high-quality education to every child.
Photo: Madeleine Sifadjam, Academie Lafayette history teacher One key principle that separates charter schools from traditional public schools is that charter schools are given the autonomy to be innovative in exchange for increased accountability. As noted in our report highlighting autonomy, students achieve when charter schools are given the appropriate freedoms to implement their instructional models. The importance of autonomy is expressed by the teachers of Academie Lafayette, a high-performing K-8 charter school in Kansas City, Missouri that features a French immersion program. The school’s ability to lead a quality language immersion program with unique activities—such as field trips and maintaining a school garden—is one of the ways the charter school harnesses its autonomy. Teachers are empowered to create special lessons and curricula to address their students’ needs. “I can teach,” responds Academie Lafayette history teacher Madeleine Sifadjam when describing her transition to teaching in a charter school. “What I can say is that, it’s a life saver for me…I can say that I’m breathing.”
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