The Center for Education Reform, 2001
The Center for Education Reform also recently released the executive summary of a report based on a charter-school survey it conducted during school year 2000-01. 346 schools responded (though no data are supplied by which to know how representative these are of the 2000 charter schools then operating). No author is named. Nor are there page numbers. But it's interesting, nonetheless. We learn, for example, that the schools' average size was 250 students and that two-thirds of them have waiting lists averaging 112 youngsters. We learn that 80% of them are start-up schools (the rest divide almost equally between public and private school conversions) and that they have a stunning array of curricular foci. (I was struck that nearly half claim to be using Direct Instruction and/or Core Knowledge.) Two-fifths of these schools got their charters from local school boards, the rest from other authorities. Have a look on the web at http://www.edreform.com/charter_schools/report/exesumm.pdf. And while you're there you can get CER's helpful new compilation of charter data for the present (2001-2002) school year by going to http://www.edreform.com/press/2001/010917.html.