Report: Charter students do slightly worse

The national report found that 37 percent of charter schools nationwide delivered worse results than traditional public schools. In Minnesota, the differences were small but statistically significant.

Last update: June 16, 2009 - 8:07 AM

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A national report on charter schools released Monday shows that Minnesota students in charter schools are doing slightly worse, but in a statistically significant way, than they would be had they remained in traditional public schools.

The report, from the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University, examines the performance of 70 percent of the nation's charter school students in 15 states.

Nationwide, the report found, 17 percent of charter schools provide "superior education opportunities" for their students, half have results that are "no different" than the public school option, and 37 percent deliver results that are worse than their students would have realized had they remained in traditional public schools.

In 1991, Minnesota became the first state to allow charter schools, which are independently run and publicly financed. Over the past 18 years, a complex fabric of about 150 schools serving almost every imaginable niche has developed. Charter school enrollment in the state has more than tripled since 2000, to nearly 33,000 students this school year, or 4 percent of public school students.

But the report also revealed some bright spots for the schools, which are now dealing with the biggest legislative overhaul in the way charter schools are regulated since their inception. Once students are in their third year in a Minnesota charter, they perform better than they would have in a traditional public school. Black students also fare better in reading in charter schools than they would have otherwise.

The report analyzed how students are doing in charter schools and compared their performance with how demographic "twins" are doing in their traditional public schools they would have attended.

EMILY JOHNS

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