Education is one of the most critical aspects that determine the future of a nation. It sets the pace and competitive spirit in the contemporary world. The ability to provide and guarantee high quality education to students during their schooling years is fundamental in ensuring their competitiveness in society.
Education plays an important role in the development of an individual. Therefore, an educational institution should be competitive and well endowed with adequate resources and facilities. It is against this backdrop that this paper provides a comparative competitive analysis of St.Louis Gateway Science Academy and Confluence Charter Schools. The analysis is based on the nature of education standards that they offer.
St. Louis Gateway Science Academy
St. Louis Gateway Science Academy is one of the public charter schools in the United States. It specializes in mathematics, science and technology. It also provides its students with problem solving skills. The latter is critical for post secondary education. The institution was incepted in 2003 as a non-profit organization under the management of Concept Schools. It has a board of directors charged with the role of overseeing all the operations.
St. Louis Gateway Science Academy’s success is anchored in the ability of the management to harmonize curriculum and select qualified teaching staff who are in a position to meet the needs of students. The core practices, goals and objectives are based on the contingency model of organizational management.
This type of model demands instantaneous consideration of the underlying competitive factors. The school’s ability to assimilate the need for continuous improvement and evaluation has been made possible owing to its ability to embrace and adopt better means of addressing the dynamic needs of education.
Confluence Charter School
Confluence Charter School was formed in 2003. It is a non-profit educational system that boasts of over 3400 students in its five networks of learning institutions. The school’s location is at 3017 North 13th Street Old North St. Louis. The Missouri University of Science and Technology is the main sponsor of the institution.
Similar to St. Louis Gateway Science Academy, it is governed by a board of directors. Besides, the school is managed by the American Quality Schools and Edison Learning. In terns of specialty, it focuses on mathematics and science modules and teaches students from Grades K to 12.
The competitiveness of Charter schools
The ability to counter competition effectively among schools depends on a school’s internal organization. The latter dictates the quality of education and guidance offered to students. Both Confluence and St. Louis Gateway Science Academy emphasize the need for quality of education offered and address the challenges that face students during learning. However, lack of adequate resources and financial problems are major setbacks in attaining the set objectives. Implementing the goals set for the school requires adequate resources.
Perhaps, the notion of competitiveness as employed in the United States’ education system is best outlined in the mode of operations depicted by the Charter Schools. The United States education system recognizes the crucial role that competition plays in education system. For instance, effective competition improves key operations and creates a more harmonic mechanism for impressive results.
Therefore, the US system of education seeks to create a democratic space so that learning institutions can operate without hindrances. Charter schools operate as immediate alternative to public learning institutions bearing in mind that they receive funding from the central government. However, they are supposed to be accountable and transparent in the management of finances.
Competitive analysis of a school assists in establishing whether a given learning institution is viable in terms of learning standards. The acceptable status of an educational system does not merely depend on the areas of specialization. Schools that seek to outdo their competitors in the market usually employ a competitive analysis program in order to determine major areas of strengths and weaknesses.
Besides, such an analysis is crucial in identifying the available opportunities that can be exploited so that an institution can remain highly competitive and relevant in the education sector. Better still, a thorough competitive analysis offers an examination of a school to determine its threats. After the analysis, the best mechanisms to address possible threats can be established.
Strengths and weakness
While public schools appear to stagnate, charter schools might indeed be the most immediate and viable alternatives for a nation. By considering the principles of accountability and responsibility to students’ results with a free operating platform, it is possible to create the largest possible room for innovation towards meeting the set targets.
However, one can begin to question the competitive standard of charter schools due to the fact that they are tied to particularistic results and therefore provide a system which is only inclined towards results.
Holistic development of learners is non-existent in most charter schools. This stands out as a major weakness of this category of schools. Owing to this apparent weakness, modern scholars do not fully support the charter system of learning. They emphasize that there is need to increase the scope and outlook of education curriculum for the sake of benefiting entire society.
Although charter schools appear to be perfect in improvement the academic results of poor students, they hardly address the needs of the gifted and high performing students in extra curricular activities. These schools mainly concentrate on specialization. This is indeed a delicate balance taking into consideration that majority of students are teenagers.
Failure to infer the necessary recognition may also lead to wastage of talent and unique competences among learners who are not specialized in the subjects being taught. This weakness can indeed derail the benefits of education in society owing to loss of important skills and talents among students.
Specialization and standard testing systems are equally harmful because they tend to restrict teachers from widening the scope of learning. The latter is a major weakness witnessed in St. Louis Gateway Science Academy. Skills that can lead to higher scores can hardly be realized.
For instance, if a teacher understands that all the mathematics questions will come from addition equations, there might be a tendency to avoid other types of calculations in the course of teaching. The application of standardized tests may lead to major biases that go against education policies. In this case, it may lead to lack of holistic learning among students enrolled in such schooling systems.
On the other hand, has necessitated further research on educational curriculum. The focus of the aforementioned schools is mainly directed towards subjects like mathematics, science and technology. These are crucial disciplines required in modern economies to propel rapid growth. For a society that needs to grow its economy, research and development are necessary.
It is crucial to mention that a schooling system lime the one portrayed by St. Louis Gateway Science Academy offers the best opportunity for learners to specialize in one or a few areas of learning ability. Eventually, such learners emerge as competent professionals in different marketable fields.