U.S. Department of Education: Promoting Educational Excellence for all Americans
Authorizer First Year as Authorizer Number of Staff Number of Schools Percentage of Applications Approveda Number of School Closuresb Total of Students in Authorized Schools Percentage of Title I Schools Percentage of Students by Race/Ethnicity Percentage of English Language Learners Percentage of Free and Reduced-Price Lunch Percentage of Special Education Percentage of Schools Making Asian AYPc
Asian African-American Latino White Native American Other
California Department of Education Charter Schools Division 2004 3.5 8, plus 8 charter districts operating 15 schools 55% of appeals 100% of statewide benefit chartersd 1 9,440 50% 6% 19% 40% 29% < 1% 5% 21% --e 6% 100%
Chicago Public Schools Office of New Schools 1997 27 27 with 35 campuses 7% in 2005 7% in 2004 3 15,310 80% 2% 56% 38% 9% 1% -- 4.5% 80% 12% 44%
Ferris State University 1998 6 16 n/af 1 6,863 69% 2% 65% 7% 25% 1% 2% 4% -- 11% 90%
Indianapolis Mayor's Office (Data collected as of 2006-07 school year) 2001 4 16 14% in 2006
43% in 2005
36% in 2004
1 2,768 83% -- 66% 4% 26% -- 4% 2% 66% 10% 80%
Massachusetts Department of Education Charter School Office 1993 10 57 23% 9 21,706 82% 4% 26% 20% 46% < 1% 3% 4% 44% 12% 75% English language arts; 74% mathg
New York City Office of Charter Schools 1998 5 23 34% in 2006 1 4,494 -- 3% 62% 29% 4% < 1% -- 3% 75% 10% 100%
State University of New York Charter Schools Institute 1999 16 36 Avg. 23% for 1999-2005 5 10,326 97% 1% 70% 17% 11% < 1% 0% 2% 75% 8% 97%
Volunteers of America of Minnesota 2000 2 12 -- 0 1,260 -- 2% 14% 8% 66% 10% -- 3% 47% 19% 71%

a Charter school authorizers do not always approve every application they receive for a new charter. This column indicates the percentage of applications that each authorizer has approved out of the total number of applications they have received.

b When a charter school does not fulfill the terms of its charter or fails to follow regulatory or other obligations, the entity that authorized the school may choose to revoke the school's charter. This column indicates how many schools' charters have been revoked by each profiled authorizer.

cAdequate yearly progress.

dCalifornia Department of Education Charter Schools Division authorizes two different kinds of charter schools: 1) schools that appeal to the state after having been denied charters by their local district and county (these schools are referred to as "appeals" in the chart above) and 2) charter schools with a proven record that seek to replicate statewide (called "statewide benefit charters"). These two groups of charters are explained further in the profile of the California Department of Education Charter Schools Division in Part III of this guide.

eCells with no data indicate that the authorizer did not report this information as of the time of publication.

fUniversity-based authorizers in the state of Michigan, where Ferris State University is located, have reached their collective cap of 150 charter schools.

gMassachusetts reports AYP separately for the subjects of English language arts and mathematics. AYP also is reported in aggregate for the entire school and for subgroups. The numbers reported in the chart represent the percentage of charter schools meeting AYP in each subject for all subgroups