Report Evaluation of the Public Charter Schools Program

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Eugene W. Hickok today released the following statement regarding Evaluation of the Public Charter Schools Program, a report from the Department's Policy and Program Studies Service:

"The findings from the study show that the Public Charter Schools Program is achieving its intended purpose: to provide states with flexible funding to support new charter schools. As can be evidenced by their growing popularity, charters are an important educational option for the nearly three-quarters of a million students who attend them—students who are, according to this report, disproportionately from low-income and minority backgrounds. These schools are popular because they respond to an unmet need: the provision of freedom and flexibility in the classroom in exchange for accountability for results. They provide real options for families who previously had none. And they demand continuous evaluation of both students and schools. This study is a part of that evaluation process.

"One part of the study examined charter schools in five states and found that more than half of charter schools in each state (and 90 percent in Colorado) were meeting state performance standards in the 2001-02 school year (the year prior to the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act). However, charter schools were less likely to meet performance standards than traditional public schools. But that is all the study shows. It does not mean that traditional schools are outperforming charter schools or vice versa. The study is a snapshot, and it is impossible to know from one picture whether charter students are catching up or falling behind. Other more sophisticated studies have shown that charter schools do, in general, help students make faster progress than do traditional public schools, though charter students have more distance to cover. This should not be surprising, since the families most desperate for the new options charters provide are the ones whose children have been left behind by the traditional system.

"This report makes an important, though limited, contribution to the literature on charter schools, but, as with most studies, groups will use it to advocate for their own position. I hope that educators and policy-makers use it to further improve the quality of charter schools—an important part of the American education system—as well as of all public education. I look forward to further study and evaluation of charters over a longer time period, as well as a rigorous examination of the effect of charter schools on student learning, such as the charter study recently launched by the Department's Institute of Education Sciences. We have much yet to learn about how to create excellent schools that leave no child behind."

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