Charter schools doing well

SACRAMENTO — More than a decade after California's first charter school opened its doors, most students are doing as well as their peers at regular schools, despite less money and difficulty finding classroom space, according to a report.

But the study released Monday by Rand Corp., a Santa Monica-based think tank, found that students attending home-based or independent-study charter school programs scored much lower on standardized tests.

The 18-month, $662,000 study paid for by the state was written into California's 1992 charter school law to determine how the public schools are doing.

Ron Zimmer, Rand economist and lead author, said the study also showed that charter school students typically have greater access to classes such as art and foreign language, possibly indicating that some charters may be using their money more efficiently.

The schools work with less money than regular schools because they often don't apply for extra funds through federal and state programs, the study found. Charter schools also don't get an equal amount of taxpayer dollars for facilities.

"That's really critical to the success of the schools," said Gary Larson, spokesman for the California Network of Educational Charters. "If policy-makers want to see charter schools improve student achievement even more, they need to ensure the schools get equal funding."

Because charters are encouraged to be innovative and unique, Zimmer said it's hard to draw one conclusion about all the 350 schools studied. The schools are run by private organizations, such as parent groups or nonprofits, and they are allowed to skip many rules that govern regular schools.

"When you blend all the different findings together, we find some reasons to be cautiously optimistic," Zimmer said.

But the report said only a small fraction of the school districts charged with watching over the schools collected accountability information such as student grades and dropout rates. Teachers at charter schools also were less likely to have their teaching credential.

And students at schools that offer home-based or independent-study programs scored much lower on standardized tests.