Local Charter Schools in State College

I could not acquire a tour or interview with anyone at a local charter school. The charter schools located in the State College area are Nittany Valley Charter School, Centre Learning Community Charter School, Wonderland Charter School, and Young Scholars of Central PA Charter School. In this entry, I would like to take a look at and compare Young Scholars and Centre Learning charter schools.

Young Scholars of Central PA Charter School
According to the Young Scholars website, “YSCPCS focuses on two student constituencies: those native speakers of American English who wish to engage a curriculum which fosters a global perspective and promotes appreciation and understanding of world regions, cultures, and global issues, and those whose native language is not American English, during their transition into the American educational system and culture.” The school produces students who are fluent in two languages in addition to English while also preparing students to be proficient in basic academic subjects. Students also reach proficiency in knowledge about other counties and cultures.

The school encourages daily communication among teachers, students, and parents in order to “prepare students for college and life-long learning.” Teachers are expected to be certified and to have all the expected clearances. They are expected to be “energetic, innovative, and progressive.”

Young Scholars provides curriculum in the following areas: language (French, Spanish, Turkish, and Chinese), technology, academic motivation and competition, personal social development, and math and science. Young Scholars believes in technology; they state on their website, “YSCP will use cutting edge technology in its unique educational program. At YSCP Charter School, technology is a key aspect of the curriculum. We want all of our students to not only be comfortable with technology, but to embrace it as an enhancement to their everyday lives.”

Centre Learning Community
CLC Charter School is a project-based school where technology is the leading force. “Project-based learning is the core of CLC's curriculum. CLC teachers design ‘real world’ projects that integrate a variety of knowledge and skills. A CLC project could integrate aspects of science, social studies, and math – as well as rely on technology, writing, and problem solving skills. This is a distinct departure from fragmented ‘subject areas’. Also, CLC projects are ‘real world’ projects. This means that the projects are not contrived, but simulate real world situations. As a result of these ‘real world’ projects, students perform because of an intrinsic desire to do so, not to avoid punishment or to gain awards.”

Technology is a very central theme at CLC. Each student has access to a laptop in school and at home in order to accomplish simple and complex computer technology operations. However, beyond technology, the environment of the classroom is unique. There is a 1:10 teacher to student ratio, and teachers often have the same students for more than one year. Teachers are typically expected to have a “love and respect for kids” and all clearances. There was no specific mention of certification requirements on the CLC website; however, every teacher employed by CLC has had some form of higher education beyond high school dealing with education, adolescent psychology, and/or curriculum. Some employees have Master’s and Doctorate degrees within the same types of academic arenas.

CLC is chartered by three of the local school districts: Bellefonte, State College, and Bald Eagle.


This entry attempted to show the similarities and differences of two Centre County charter schools by describing each school individually. Both seem to be innovative but have very different visions. However, both schools have a mission to benefit the positive growth of each child. The next blog entry will be a synopsis of my interview with Jillian Reese about school choice.