A typical school has students, teachers, administrators, Common Core standards, state assessments, and educational practices. Learning is taking place in the classrooms and the teachers and administrators are making the educational choices on behalf of the students. IEM schools have all of those components except one and the significant thing that sets them apart is the belief and practice that parents should be empowered to make as many choices on behalf of their children’s learning as is legally possible.

Randy Gaschler, President of Innovative Education Management (IEM), set out to change public education in 1993 when he founded his first charter School, Horizon. He embarked on a journey to turn education on its head and created schools where the parent could be as responsible for the outcome of their child’s education as they choose. The parents could also decide that they wanted to leave some or all of those decisions to the school, but the critical piece was that the parent was given that choice. This was quite different than what was taking place in schools across the nation where the school was making all of these decisions for their students.

This flip flop of decision making has been wildly successful in several IEM managed charter schools across the state. Currently, Sky Mountain Charter School in Southern California, South Sutter Charter School and Ocean Grove Charter School in Northern California are real life models of Mr. Gaschler’s parent-driven schools. In these schools, students are honored for their individual learning styles with the goal of creating life-long learners. The parents are engaged in an ongoing relationship with their Educational Specialist (ES) and this is integral to the educational process.

What role is bureaucracy playing in our schools today? How big and important has standardized tests and the Common Core standards become? Are they driving education or merely supporting it? As parents, we all want our children to become everything they are destined to become. Part of that journey is in finding an educational model that supports each of our children’s unique desires and interests.

This blog will address educational topics from the lens of an IEM school. We will address current events and current trends in education. We invite you to interact with us on social media and by visiting our website at www.ieminc.org

Partnering With Parents to Drive Education!