The
schools range from back - to - basics elementary
schools where students wear uniforms and drill on math and reading to «hippie» - style
schools using open -
ended, project - based approaches, says Kaaren Heikes, executive director
of the
Northwest Center for Educational Options, an Oregon nonprofit center that supports charter
schools.
Among those who enrolled in the spring — some just weeks before the
school year
ended — were a 17 - year - old from Guatemala returning to classes for the first time since he was in sixth grade, a ninth - grader who left a nearby charter
school after she was caught with marijuana, and an 18 - year - old who dropped out
of Southeast Washington's Ballou High earlier in the year after moving into a group foster home in
Northwest Washington.