Archived - The State of Charter Schools Third-Year Report -- C. Students of Charter Schools

Archived Information

The State of Charter Schools Third-Year Report — May 1999

C. Students of Charter Schools

Student Racial/Ethnic Composition
School Racial/Ethnic Distribution
Student Eligibility for Free And Reduced-Price Lunch
Students With Disabilities
Limited English Proficient Students

Student Racial/Ethnic Composition

One fear regarding the charter movement is that charter schools will be elitist schools, serving a lower proportion of students of color than other public schools. Our research suggests that, in fact, most charter schools had about the same percentage of white students as their district average. More than 70 percent of charter schools were within 20 percent of the average district percentage of white students, while about 16 percent had a distinctly higher percentage of students of color than their surrounding district. The remaining 12 percent of schools had a lower percentage of students of color than their surrounding district.

This table shows two methods for comparing the racial/ethnic composition of charter schools to the racial/ethnic composition of all public schools. Both methods indicate that charter schools have enrolled a slightly larger percentage of students of color than all public schools.
When the total number of students is used as the base for calculation, slightly more than half (52 percent) of the charter school students (in 1997-98) were white, compared to almost 60 percent white students in all public schools in the 24 charter states (in 1996-97). Charter schools were also slightly more likely to serve black, Hispanic, and American Indian students (19, 21, and 4 percent, respectively) compared to all public schools in the 24 charter states that served 17 percent black students, 19 percent Hispanic students, and 1 percent American Indian students.
Using the school as the base for calculation, the average estimated percentage of white students across charter schools (55 percent) was somewhat lower than the average percentage of white students across all public schools (63 percent). On average, charter schools enrolled a slightly larger percentage of black students (22 percent) than all public schools (16 percent).

Racial/Ethnic Composition of Charter School Students (1997-98), Compared To All Public School Students In The 24 Charter States (1996-97)

Racial/ethnic categories	Students				Schools
	# of students in category		% of students in category		Average of school % of students in racial category
	Charter Schools	Public Schools	Charter Schools	Public Schools	Charter Schools	Public Schools
Total¹	138,935	27,886,307			589	49,316
White, not of Hispanic origin	71,943	16,367,055	51.8%	58.7%	55.0%	62.5%
Black, not of Hispanic origin	26,393	4,680,563	19.0%	16.8%	22.0%	16.0%
Hispanic	28,554	5,395,949	20.6%	19.3%	15.7%	16.6%
Asian or Pacific Islander	5,157	1,164,334	3.7%	4.2%	2.5%	3.3%
American Indian or Alaska Native	5,310	278,392	3.8%	1.0%	4.0%	1.6%
Other²	1,578	NA	1.1%	NA	0.8%	NA

NOTE: These data rely on responses from 589 of 619 open charter schools that responded to the survey. The 589 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. Data from 30 schools were considered invalid for this analysis.

¹These totals differ somewhat from totals presented earlier. The charter school total relies on 589 open charter schools as indicated above, while other figures utilize different numbers of schools. The total for all public schools differs from that presented in Exhibit 5 because it relies on data from different sources and different years.

²The National Center for Education Statistics does not report an "other" racial category.

Charter School Enrollment By Race/Ethnicity Compared To Public School Enrollment In The 24 Charter States

Enrollment chart

Student Racial/Ethnic Composition of Charter Schools Compared to Their Surrounding Districts

Enrollment chart

School Racial/Ethnic Distribution

The states vary greatly in the racial/ethnic composition of their public school students, and charter schools generally mirror the state's racial composition. However, charter schools in 14 of the 24 charter states enrolled a considerably higher percentage of non-white students than do the other public schools. In some cases, this focus results from provisions in state law that target charter schools toward serving disadvantaged students.

In 14 states, the percentage of white students enrolled in charter schools in 1997-98 was lower (at least five percent lower) than the percentage of white students in all public schools in the state in 1996-97.
Of the 13 states with 10 or more charter schools, charter schools in six states —Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Texas — enrolled a much lower percentage of white students than all public schools.
In four states — Alaska, California, Colorado, Georgia — charter schools enrolled a higher percentage of white students than all public schools. This percentage difference was greater than ten percent in Alaska and Georgia.
Two states — Arizona and Florida — had about the same (less than five percent difference) percentage of white students in charter schools as compared to all public schools.

Estimated Average of School Percentages of White Students Across Charter Schools and All Public Schools in States With More Than Than 20 Charter Schools

Enrollment chart

Estimated Average School Racial/Ethnic Percentages Across Charter Schools And All Public Schools

State		# of schools	% White	% Black	% Hispanic	% Asian/ Pac. Is.	% Am.Indian Alaska Ntv.	% Other ¹
Alaska	charter	10	81.6%	2.3%	1.1%	3.2%	11.6%	0.2%
Alaska	all public	482	63.1%	4.7%	2.9%	4.5%	24.8%
Arizona	charter	118	56.1%	9.8%	18.6%	1.3%	13.8%	0.4%
Arizona	all public	1,281	56.7%	4.3%	30.1%	1.8%	7.1%
California	charter	115	48.1%	10.2%	31.7%	6.5%	1.8%	1.7%
California	all public	7,980	39.5%	8.7%	39.7%	11.2%	0.9%
Colorado	charter	46	77.9%	5.7%	13.0%	2.2%	1.2%	0.0%
Colorado	all public	1,468	72.0%	5.5%	18.8%	2.6%	1.1%
Connecticut	charter	11	27.0%	49.7%	22.9%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%
Connecticut	all public	1,023	71.7%	13.5%	11.9%	2.6%	0.3%
Florida	charter	29	51.8%	41.3%	4.9%	1.2%	0.7%	0.1%
Florida	all public	2,789	56.7%	25.4%	15.9%	1.8%	0.2%
Georgia	charter	17	72.6%	18.8%	4.9%	2.4%	0.2%	1.1%
Georgia	all public	1,798	57.9%	37.7%	2.6%	1.7%	0.1%
Illinois	charter	6	16.6%	60.5%	22.5%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
Illinois	all public	4,171	63.0%	21.1%	12.7%	3.1%	0.1%
Louisiana	charter	6	32.2%	64.8%	1.1%	0.6%	0.9%	0.4%
Louisiana	all public	1,468	50.5%	46.4%	1.2%	1.3%	0.6%
Massachusetts	charter	19	47.2%	27.1%	19.3%	1.1%	0.4%	4.9%
Massachusetts	all public	1,810	77.9%	8.5%	9.4%	0.4%	0.2%
Michigan	charter	92	49.9%	42.8%	3.8%	0.9%	2.4%	0.2%
Michigan	all public	3,002	83.3%	11.1%	2.9%	1.7%>	1.0%
Minnesota	charter	25	52.6%	23.6%	2.0%	13.0%	7.9%	0.9%
Minnesota	all public	1,785	86.4%	5.2%	2.2%	4.2%	2.0%
New Jersey	charter	4	29.3%	30.1%	35.5%	5.1%	0.0%	0.0%
New Jersey	all public	2,278	62.5%	18.5%	13.5%	5.3%	0.2%
New Mexico	charter	4	39.8%	3.9%	43.9%	2.5%	9.9%	0.0%
New Mexico	all public	729	38.6%	2.4%	47.5%	1.06%	10.5%
North Carolina	charter	27	42.6%	53.1%	1.4%	0.3%	1.8%	0.8%
North Carolina	all public	1,997	63.9%	30.8%	2.3%	1.5%	1.5%
Pennsylvania	charter	4	27.1%	67.7%	3.8%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%
Pennsylvania	all public	3,110	80.2%	14.2%	3.7%	1.8%	0.1%
Texas	charter	28	12.9%	26.9%	58.1%	1.2%	0.0%	0.9%
Texas	all public	6,875	45.6%	14.3%	37.4%	2.4%	0.3%
Wisconsin	charter	17	73.6%	19.4%	3.1%	3.1%	0.7%	0.1%
Wisconsin	all public	2,092	82.7%	9.6%	3.5%	2.9%	1.3%

NOTE: These data rely on response from 578 out of the 619 open charter schools that responded to our survey. Of the 578 schools, 11 schools in six states (Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kansas, Rhode Island, and South Carolina) have been omitted from this exhibit because each state has fewer than three charter schools and therefore numbers are small and percentages are not meaningful. All schools in this chart have valid racial data; that is, schools where the number of students in the racial/ethnic categories was equal to the total student enrollment reported.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data Survey 199697 Early Release Files.

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

Student Eligibility for Free And Reduced-Price Lunch

Do charter schools serve the same proportion of economically disadvantaged students as other public schools? Students' eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch under the National School Lunch program is one measure of economic disadvantage that allows us to compare students in charter schools to those in all public schools. Charter schools serve a significantly higher proportion of economically disadvantaged students compared to all public schools in eight states. In some of those states, charter legislation targets low-income or at-risk students. Charter schools serve a distinctly lower proportion of economically disadvantaged students in three states.

In the 1997-98 school year, 37 percent of charter school students in the 24 states with charter schools were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a figure very similar to the 38 percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch in all public schools in those states.
The percentage of students eligible for free or reduced lunch is at least ten percentage points higher in charter schools than in all public schools in eight of the charter states: Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
In five charter states — Alaska, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii and New Mexico — the percentage of eligible students is at least ten percentage points lower than in all public schools.
In seven charter states, the percentage of eligible students in charter schools is within ten percentage points of that for all public schools. Four of these states have large numbers of charter schools — Arizona, California, Colorado, and Michigan.

Estimated Number of Students Eligible for Free And Reduced-Price Lunch

Charter schools (1997-98)			All public schools (1994-95)
	# eligible students	% of all students	# eligible students	% of all students
Total	53,970	36.7%	10,146,087	37.6%
Alaska	60	7.0%	32,340	25.7%
Arizona	9,640	39.4%	284,357	40.1%
California	17,820	35.4%	2,257,008	42.4%
Colorado	1,967	18.1%	174,023	27.8%
Connecticut	521	49.6%	113,221	22.8%
Florida	1,080	37.7%	895,510	43.9%
Georgia	3,803	29.4%	501,824	40.6%
Illinois	1,396	88.5%	583,238	30.8%
Louisiana	344	74.3%	474,608	59.3%
Massachusetts	2,490	45.1%	225,110	25.6%
Michigan	5,540	34.1%	459747	28.7%
Minnesota	1,502	52.5%	217,376	26.8%
New Jersey	201	43.1%	326,022	28.3%
New Mexico	1,167	30.1%	159,740	49.6%
North Carolina	1,465	40.1%	413,729	36.5%
Pennsylvania	399	69.3%	541,793	31.1%
Texas	3,456	68.7%	1,662,900	46.1%
Wisconsin	438	27.6%	210,011	24.9%

NOTE: The total number of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch is based on 566 of the 619 open charter schools that responded to the survey. Of the 566 schools, nine schools in six states (DE, DC, HI, KS, RI, and SC) are not displayed in the table because each state has three or fewer charter schools and percentages are not meaningful. The "Total" row includes data from all 24 charter states, including the six states not included in the table. For each state, the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch is computed by dividing the number of eligible students by the total number of students enrolled in schools in that state.

SOURCE: The percentage of students in all public schools eligible for free and reduced-price lunch was computed using two sources. The source for the numerator (eligibility counts by state) were the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services, Program Information Division, for the 1994-95 school year. The data for the denominator (total student enrollment) were derived from the 1997 Digest of Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (Fall, 1993).

Percentage of Students Eligible for Free and Reduced-Price Lunch in Charter Schools and All Public Schools

Enrollment chart

Students With Disabilities

Although charter schools are freed from many of the state regulations that govern schools, they are still subject to laws requiring them to provide access to students with disabilities. Our previous reports have documented that some charter schools are specifically designed to serve students with disabilities.

In the 1997-98 school year, students with disabilities made up eight percent of the student population in charter schools in the 24 charter states, compared to 11 percent of students with disabilities in all public schools in those states.
The percentage of students with disabilities varied little from state to state for all public schools, while this percentage varied greatly across the charter schools. In the 1997-98 school year, the percentage of students with disabilities ranged from about two percent of students in New Jersey to a high of about 25 percent of students in Florida.
In most states, the percentage of students with disabilities in charter schools was similar to the percentage of students with disabilities in all public schools. The percentage of students with disabilities was at least ten percentage points higher in charter schools than in all public schools in Florida. The percentage of students with disabilities was more than ten percentage points lower in charter schools than in all public schools in New Jersey (which had only six open charter schools).

Estimated Number And Percentage of Students With Disabilities

	Charter schools (1997-98)		All public schools (1996-97)
	# of students	% of students	# of students	% of students
Total	12,243	8.3%	3,185,443	11.2%
Alaska	43	5.0%	157,44	12.1%
Arizona	1,730	7.1%	71,742	0.9%
California	3,576	7.1%	528,273	9.4%
Colorado	857	7.9%	64,275	9.5%
Connecticut	84	0.8%	73,578	1.4%
Florida	720	25.1%	295,762	13.2%
Georgia	1,122	8.7%	126,856	9.4%
Illinois	172	10.9%	239,415	12.1%
Louisiana	30	6.5%	83,277	10.5%
Massachusetts	546	9.9%	144,488	15.5%
Michigan	853	5.3%	175,219	10.5%
Minnesota	491	17.2%	90,353	11.4%
New Jersey	10	2.1%	185,635	15.5%
New Mexico	673	17.4%	44,440	13.5%
North Carolina	523	14.3%	137,013	11.3%
Pennsylvania	77	13.4%	94,953	10.8%
Texas	362	7.2%	428,859	11.2%
Wisconsin	137	8.6%	96,489	11.0%

NOTE: The total number of students with disabilities is based on 554 of the 619 open charter schools that responded to the survey, although the exhibit does not show breakdowns for states with three or fewer charter schools. The percentage of students with disabilities in Florida is inflated by one school that reported large numbers of charter students with disabilities. The total number of students with disabilities is based on 554 of the 619 open charter schools that responded to the survey. Of the 554 schools, an additional ten schools in six states (Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kansas, Rhode Island, and South Carolina) are not displayed in the table because each state still has three or fewer charter schools and percentages are not meaningful. The "Total" row includes data from all 24 charter states, including the six states not included in the table.

SOURCE: The national figures rely on two sources. The source for the numerator (the number of students served under IDEA) was: Twentieth Annual Report to Congress of the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, U.S. Department of Education, (forthcoming). The source for the denominator (enrollment in the 24 charter states) was U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data Survey, 199697 Early Release Files.

Estimated Percentage of Students With Disabilities in Charter Schools and All Public Schools

Enrollment chart

Limited English Proficient Students

Limited English Proficient (LEP) students are concentrated in a few states in both charter and all public schools. Across the 24 charter states, the percentage of LEP students in charter schools is similar to that of all public schools, but the state-by-state picture reveals great variation.

In the 1997-98 school year, the percentage of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students enrolled in charter schools was similar to the percentage of LEP students in all public schools in the 1994-95 school year, both charter schools and all public schools enrolled about 10 percent LEP students.
There was wide variation across states in the percentage of LEP students in charter schools, ranging from lows of less than one percent in nine states to a high of 24 percent in New Mexico.
The largest percentages of LEP students in both charter and other public schools were in California, New Mexico, and Texas. Charter schools in New Mexico enrolled about the same percentage of LEP students as the total of all public schools in the state, while charter schools in Texas enrolled a larger percentage of LEP students than other public schools in the state. Charter schools in California enrolled a smaller percentage of LEP students than other public schools.
Charter schools in Alaska and Florida enrolled a much lower percentage of LEP students than all public schools in the state, while charter schools in Minnesota and Texas enrolled much larger percentages than all public schools in the state.

State	Estimated LEP students
	Charter schools (1997-98)	All public schools (1994-95)
	# of students	% of students	# of students	% of students
Total ¹	14,856	10.1%	2,814,982	10.7%
Alaska	6	0.7%	34,942	27.7%
Arizona	1,643	6.7%	93,528	11.9%
California	9,208	18.3%	1,381,393	24.6%
Colorado	120	1.1%	24,675	7.4%
Connecticut	8	0.8%	19,819	3.8%
Florida	7	0.2%	288,603	12.2%
Georgia	382	0.3%	14,339	1.1%
Illinois	54	3.4%	118,246	0.6%
Louisiana	2	0.4%	6,494	0.9%
Massachusetts	339	6.1%	44,394	4.7%
Michigan	407	2.5%	25,988	1.6%
Minnesota	321	11.2%	28,237	3.4%
New Jersey	3	0.6%	49,300	0.4%
New Mexico	954	24.6%	78,107	2.4%
North Carolina	90	2.5%	24,771	0.2%
Pennsylvania	20	3.5%	NA	NA
Texas	1,140	22.7%	513,634	13.4%
Wisconsin	22	1.4%	23,270	2.6%

NOTE: The total number of LEP students is based on 611 of the 619 open charter schools that responded to the survey, although the exhibit does not show breakdowns for states with three or fewer charter schools. For each state, the percentage of LEP charter school students is computed by dividing the number of LEP students by the total number of enrolled students. The total number of LEP students is based on 611 of the 619 open charter schools that responded to the survey. Of the 611 schools, an additional nine schools in six states (Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kansas, Rhode Island, and South Carolina) are not displayed in the table because each states has three or fewer charter schools and the percentages are not meaningful. . The "Total" row includes data from all 24 charter states, including the six states not included in the table.

SOURCE: Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs, Summary Report of the Survey of the States Limited English Proficient Students and Available Educational Programs and Services 19961997: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 1998.

¹ The total excludes data from the state of Pennsylvania, which did not report information on LEP students for all public schools.

Estimated Number and Percentage of LEP Students in Charter Schools and in All Public Schools

Enrollment chart

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[B. Basic Characteristics of Charter Schools]

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