Who Attends Charter Schools?

While charter schools are similar to other public schools in many respects, they differ in several important ways, including the makeup of the student population and their location. For example, in comparison to other public schools, higher percentages of charter school fourth-grade students are Black or attend schools in central cities.

Grade 4: 2003

*Significantly different from other public schools.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2003 Mathematics Charter School Pilot Study.

Percentage of students assessed in mathematics, by type of public school and student characteristics, grade 4: 2003
Characteristic	Charter schools		Other public schools
Gender
Male	48	*	51
Female	52	*	49
Race/ethnicity
White	45	*	58
Black	31	*	17
Hispanic	20		19
Other1	4	*	6
Eligibility for free/reduced-price school lunch
Eligible	42		44
Not eligible	48		52
Information not available	10		4
Students with disabilities
Yes	8	*	11
No	92	*	89
Limited-English-proficient students
Yes	9		9
No	91		91
Type of location
Central city	50	*	29
Non-central-city2	50	*	71
* Significantly different from other public schools. 1Other includes Asian/Pacific Islander students, American Indian/Alaska Native students, and students categorized in school records as another race or ethnicity. 2Non-central-city includes students attending schools in urban fringe/large town and rural/small town locations. NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. The results for students with disabilities and limited-English-proficient students are based on students who were assessed and cannot be generalized to the total population of such students, which also includes students who could not be assessed based on defined exclusion criteria. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2003 Mathematics Charter School Pilot Study.

Go back to America's Charter Schools for more information.

Explore NAEP charter school performance results.