Archived Information

School Racial/Ethnic Distribution | Student Eligibility or Ree And Reduced-Price Lunch |
Student with Disabilities | Limited English Proficient Students

Critics and advocates alike have feared that charter schools would primarily serve white students. This has not turned out to be the case. Overall, charter schools enrolled a larger percentage of students of color than all public schools in the states with open charter schools. Over the last 3 years, the percentage of white students served by charter schools has slightly declined. At the local level, most charter schools had about the same proportion of white students (within 20 percent) as their surrounding districts.

• In 1998-99, using the total number of students as the base for calculation, charter schools enrolled approximately 11 percent fewer white students than all public schools (48 percent versus 59 percent) in the 27 charter states (in 1997-98). Charter schools were more likely than all public schools to serve black students (almost 24 percent versus 17 percent) and Hispanic students (21 percent versus 18 percent).

• In order to examine the racial/ethnic variability across schools, we also calculated the average of the schools' racial/ethnic percentages. On average, charter schools enrolled a significantly lower percentage of white students (50 percent versus 63 percent) and a much larger percentage of black students (27 percent versus 17 percent) than all public schools in the 27 charter states.

• The percentage of white students in charter schools declined from 52 percent in the 1996-97 school year to about 48 percent in the 1998-99 school year.

• Sixty-nine percent of charter schools were within 20 percent of their surrounding district's percentage of nonwhite students, while almost 18 percent had a distinctly higher percentage of students of color than their surrounding district. Approximately 14 percent of schools had a lower percentage of students of color than their surrounding districts.

Racial/Ethnic Composition of Charter School Students Compared to All Public School Students in the 27 Charter States

Note: The data for the table on this page are based on responses from 927 of the 975 open charter schools that responded to the survey. The 927 schools were those with valid racial data; that is , schools where the number of students in the racial/ethnic categories was equal to the total student enrollment reported. The data comparing charter student racial/ethnic composition to their surrounding districts on the facing page are based on responses from 924 of the 975 open charter schools that responded to our survey and where the relevant district could be identified.

Charter School Enrollment by Race Compared to Public school Enrollment in the 27 Charter States

Student Racial Composition of Charter Schools Compared to their Surrounding Districts²

¹The National Center for Education Statistics does not report an "other" racial category.

²In general, we relied on schools to report their surrounding district when they responded to the survey. In a few cases where schools did not report district information, we were able to match charter schools and districts by zip code using the 1997-98 Common Core of Data Survey.

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B. Basic Characteristics of Charter Schools

C. Students of Charter Schools (Cont'd)