Minnesota's public charter schools are expected by law to be innovative organizations in terms of different learning opportunities, teaching methods, forms of measuring outcomes, forms of accountability and professional opportunities for teachers.
The school's charter contract contains a declaration of the innovation purposes the school intends to address adn how it will report the implementation of those innovations. The annual report must include information on its innovative practices and implementation.
There are a number of different definitions of innovation, but one of the best is from "Futurelab", an non-profit dedicated to innovation in education.
“Innovation is the successful exploitation of ideas, generated at the intersection of invention and insight, which leads to social or economic value”.
1 - Innovation is the exploitation of ideas,
2 - Ideas are generated by mixing creativity and insight, and
3 - Application that leads to something of value.