Archived Information
The State of Charter Schools Third-Year Report May 1999
Enrollment By State
School Size
Grade Level Configuration
Certificated Teachers
Computers for Instruction
The number of students in charter schools varied greatly across the 24 states with operating charter schools in the 1997-98 school year ranging from fewer than 100 students in Kansas to more than 50,000 students in California. Regardless of the size of the state's student population, charter schools continued to enroll a small percentage of public school students. |
State | Charter school enrollment,199798 | All public school enrollment, Fall 1996 | % of public school students who are in charter schools |
Total |
162,130 |
28,239,728 |
0.6% |
Alaska |
1,097 |
126,015 |
0.9% |
Arizona |
25,128 |
749,759 |
3.4% |
California |
55,764 |
5,535,312 |
1.0% |
Colorado |
10,888 |
673,438 |
1.6% |
Connecticut |
1,084 |
523,054 |
0.2% |
Delaware |
365 |
11,0549 |
0.3% |
District of Columbia |
235 |
79,159 |
0.3% |
Florida |
3,123 |
2,240,283 |
0.1% |
Georgia |
14,522 |
1,321,239 |
1.1% |
Hawaii |
832 |
188,485 |
0.4% |
Illinois |
2,117 |
1,961,299 |
0.1% |
Kansas |
70 |
465,140 |
0.0% |
Louisiana |
463 |
777,570 |
0.1% |
Massachusetts |
6,360 |
936,794 |
0.7% |
Michigan |
18,273 |
1,662,100 |
1.1% |
Minnesota |
2,892 |
836,700 |
0.3% |
New Jersey |
1,424 |
1,221,013 |
0.1% |
New Mexico |
4,563 |
330,522 |
1.4% |
North Carolina |
4,488 |
1,199,962 |
0.4% |
Pennsylvania |
974 |
1,807,250 |
0.1% |
Rhode Island |
190 |
151,181 |
0.1% |
South Carolina |
156 |
648,980 |
0.0% |
Texas |
5,533 |
3,809,186 |
0.1% |
Wisconsin |
1,589 |
884,738 |
0.2% |
One of the most dramatic characteristics of the charter school movement is the very high percentage of charter schools that are small schools. Our research suggests that both charter school founders and parents highly value a small school environment and that small school size appears to be a principal reason for the high demand for charter schools. |
Approximately 65 percent of all charter schools were small schools enrolling fewer than 200 students in 1997-98. About 36 percent enrolled fewer than 100 students. In contrast, about 17 percent of all public schools in the 24 charter states enrolled fewer than 200 students and only eight percent enrolled fewer than 100 students (in 1996-97). The median number of students in charter schools is 132 compared to 486 in all public schools.
Only about 10 percent of charter schools enrolled more than 600 students, compared to more than one-third (36 percent) of all public schools.
Newly created charter schools were most likely to be small: 74 percent of newly created charter schools enrolled fewer than 200 students, while 35 percent of charter schools that were pre-existing public schools enrolled fewer than 200 students. The median number of students is significantly higher for pre-existing public schools (385) than for either newly created (111) or pre-existing private (125).
Only four percent of newly-created charter schools enrolled more than 600 students compared to 35 percent of charter schools that were pre-existing public schools, many of which were large secondary schools.
The enrollment distribution of charter schools that were pre-existing private schools more closely resembles the enrollment distribution of newly created charter schools than pre-existing public schools.
Charter School Creation Status | |||||
All public schools | Charter schools | Newly created | Pre-existing public | Pre-existing private | |
Number of schools | 50,105 | 678 | 433 | 120 | 65 |
Median number of students | 486 | 132 | 111 | 385 | 125 |
School Enrollment Range | % of schools | ||||
1-99 | 8.2% | 36.4% | 43.4% | 15.0% | 33.8% |
100-199 | 8.3% | 29.8% | 30.9% | 20.0% | 43.1% |
200-599 | 47.3% | 23.6% | 21.5% | 30.0% | 18.5% |
600-999 | 25.2% | 7.1% | 2.8% | 23.3% | 3.1% |
1,000 or more | 11.0% | 3.1% | 1.4% | 11.7% | 1.5% |
NOTE: The third column called "Charter schools" includes data for 678 charter schools and is based on two sources of data: (1) responses from 618 open charter schools that responded to the Study's telephone survey supplemented with enrollment information from state data sources and (2) the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics, Common Core of Data Survey, 1996-97 Early Release Files. The percentages in columns four, five, and six for the different types of charter schools rely only on the first source of data, the responses from 618 charter schools. The distribution of school size for the 618 is almost the same as that for the 678 charter schools. For the 618 charter schools, the median number of students is 128. We report size for 618 of 619 survey respondents because one school did not report enrollment information and we were unable to obtain this information either from the school or from other sources at the time of this report.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD) Survey, 199697, Early Release Files. We use the CCD data here rather than data from the Digest of Education Statistics because the enrollment distribution is based on school-by-school enrollment figures; the Digest provided only overall enrollment figures for each state.
State laws generally allow a charter school to choose the age range of students it will serve (from the state's minimum to its maximum compulsory attendance age). About one quarter of charter schools have opted for K-8, K-12, or ungraded schools, returning to an older tradition in American education where students are together for an extended time. |
Charter School Creation Status | |||||
All public schools | Charter schools | Newly-created | Pre-existing public | Pre-existing private | |
Number of schools | 50,105 | 619 | 434 | 120 | 65 |
% of schools | |||||
Primary | 5.9% | 9.0% | 9.9% | 4.2% | 12.3% |
Elementary | 47.3% | 26.7% | 2.4% | 36.7% | 26.2% |
Middle | 14.9% | 10.0% | 12.0% | 8.3% | 0.0% |
K-8 | 5.9% | 16.3% | 16.8% | 11.7% | 21.5% |
Middle-high | 5.6% | 10.7% | 10.8% | 7.5% | 15.4% |
High | 15.2% | 15.7% | 14.5% | 2.5% | 6.2% |
K-12 | 2.3% | 7.9% | 7.8% | 5.8% | 12.3% |
Other | 2.1% | 2.7% | 3.2% | 0.8% | 3.1% |
Ungraded | 0.8% | 1.0% | 0.9% | 0.0% | 3.1% |
Charter legislation frees charter schools from many state regulations, but teacher certification is one area in which the state charter laws vary in terms of how much freedom they allow charter schools. More than half of the charter states require charter schools to hire certificated staff. In the other states, charter schools are free to hire non-certificated teachers. |
% of certificated instructional staff | |||
State | State law requires teacher certification for charter school teachers1 | Charter schools | All public schools |
Alaska | Yes | 86.7% | 91.5% |
Arizona | No | 72.7% | 87.5% |
California | No | 79.5% | 87.3% |
Colorado | Yes(1) | 82.8% | 91.4% |
Connecticut | No | 83.7% | 85.5% |
Delaware | Yes | 79.2% | 89.6% |
District of Columbia | No | 50.6% | 85.8% |
Florida | No | 71.0% | 89.8% |
Georgia | Yes(1) | 92.5% | 92.4% |
Hawaii | No | 90.1% | 83.0% |
Illinois | No | 49.3% | 93.6% |
Kansas | Yes | 100.0% | 98.4% |
Louisiana | Yes(2) | 67.3% | 89.4% |
Massachusetts | No | 73.4% | 93.7% |
Michigan | Yes | 86.6% | 87.3% |
Minnesota | Yes | 87.4% | 95.5% |
New Jersey | Yes | 91.2% | 96.3% |
New Mexico | Yes | 90.6% | 93.5% |
North Carolina | Yes(3) | 64.7% | 90.2% |
Pennsylvania | Yes(2) | 70.0% | 93.8% |
Rhode Island | Yes | 100.0% | 93.9% |
South Carolina | Yes(4) | 86.7% | 93.8% |
Texas | Not specified | 70.2% | 90.9% |
Wisconsin | No(5) | 97.2% | 95.7% |
NOTE: This exhibit is based on responses from 608 of the 619 open charter schools that responded to the telephone survey. Percentage of certificated staff is computed by dividing total number of certificated classroom and special education teachers by the total number of instructional staff including certificated classroom and special education teachers, non-certificated classroom and resource teachers, and other instructional staff, excluding aides and assistants.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing in the United States: A Statistical Profile, 1993-1994. Certificated instructional staff include teachers with advanced, regular, and alternative certification.
1"Yes" means that the state law required the same level of certification as in other public schools; waiver provisions in effect for other public schools also apply to charter schools. (1) In Georgia and Colorado, certification requirements may be waived. (2) In Louisiana and Pennsylvania, at least 75 percent of the staff must be certified. (3) In North Carolina, 75 percent of grade K-5 teachers and 50 percent of grade 6-12 teachers must be certificated. (4) In South Carolina, in new schools at least 75 percent must be certified while in pre-existing schools, at least 90 percent must be certified. (5) In Wisconsin, certification is not required if certified staff are not available.
One of the seven priorities of the U.S. Department of Education is to have every classroom connected to the Internet by the Year 2000 and to have all the students be technologically literate. In order for public schools to make progress toward these goals, they must provide technology access for students in the classroom. Unlike other public schools, however, some charter schools are new organizations that face fiscal difficulties that may limit the schools' ability to purchase computers or to develop a technologically strong academic program. On the other hand, a surprisingly large proportion of charter schools use computers extensively and the majority of computers in charter schools have multimedia capability. |
Total in sample | # of schools | % of schools |
355 | ||
1 to less than 5 | 117 | 33.0% |
5 to less than 10 | 123 | 34.7% |
10 or more | 96 | 27.0% |
0 computers used for instruction | 19 | 5.3% |
Charter school that have the following proportion of | ||||
Classrooms with computers used for instruction | Computer with multimedia capacity2 | |||
Total in sample | # of schools | % of schools | # of schools | % of schools |
354 | 332 | |||
None | 54 | 15.3% | 27 | 8.1% |
Up to one quarter | 34 | 9.6% | 30 | 9.0% |
One quarter to one half | 36 | 10.2% | 47 | 14.2% |
One half to three quarters | 13 | 3.7% | 28 | 8.4% |
Three quarters to all | 217 | 61.2% | 200 | 60.2% |
NOTE: These data are drawn from questions asked only in the 1997 new schools survey and the 1997 or 1998 follow-up surveys; resulting in responses from 365 schools. Out of these 365 schools, 355 reported information on number of computers. Columns two and three in the second table are based on responses from 354 of the 355 >possible schools, one schools did not provide information about percent of classrooms using computers. Columns four and five in the second table are based on responses from 332 of the 335 possible schools; 19 schools reported that they had no computers available for instruction and thus the student to computer ratio could not be computed for these schools. Four additional schools did not report information on multimedia computers.
1Computers and Classrooms: The Status of Technology in U.S. High Schools. May, 1997. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, Policy Information Center. This average represents all 50 states.
2 The distribution of schools with multimedia or advanced capacity is similar across charter schools without regard to the numbers of computers at the school with the exception that schools with 10 or fewer computers are slightly less likely to have multimedia capacity than schools with more than 10 computers.