Disclaimer: I've spent 5 years working for public charter schools that worked in low-income school districts. I'd encourage you to read this: https://mskellyen

Disclaimer: I've spent 5 years working for public charter schools that worked in low-income school districts. I'd encourage you to read this: https://mskellyenglish12.weebly.com/uploads/3/0/7/9/30792489/maritas_bargain.pdf https://mskellyenglish12.weebly.com/uploads/3/0/7/9/30792489... This talks about the first major charter network that primarily worked to serve low-income students for whom the achievement gap was large. The idea behind many of these schools is that the standard model, for one reason or another, is not serving these students properly and that adjustments have to be made. Those can take the form of extended school days, double blocks of reading (core to all learning), a focus on wellbeing, and many more. These particular networks are public and not-for-profit, but there are also charter schools that are for-profit as you mentioned. Generally speaking, "charter school" is an umbrella for any school that operates with a charter outside the standard public school, so it encompasses all sorts of models, but the KIPP-style school is one that has really taken off in the last 20 years in many low-income communities. There are also plenty of problems with KIPP and its brethren, but they have made progress in places many haven't.