Abstract: This brief details the findings from a survey of 390 public charter schools as part of the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). According to NAEP, a high proportion of charter school students have a history of academic struggle and begin charter schools below average on state performance assessments. NAEP finds that performance is generally higher in older charter schools. Schools that had been open seven to 10 years significantly outperformed schools that had been open one to five years. The sample found that charters that receive a renewal term of 11 years or more had higher scores than the charters with the more typical five-year renewals. And, schools with only three-year renewals had lower scores. The author finds that the NAEP data leave unanswered many important questions about charter schools, primarily due to the survey’s small sample size, and that there is a critical need for longitudinal studies.
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