Brookings' Brown Education Report

Charter schools in four of the ten states analyzed in Brookings 2002 Education report scored significantly below similar local public schools on achievement tests. The researchers note, however, that the analysis cannot determine whether these results reflect poor performance on the part of the charter schools or a pre-selection of low-performing students whose parents choose to send them to charter schools. Across all schools, 17-year-olds' arithmetic scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests have fallen precipitously since 1990-largely attributable to poor performance on problems involving fractions.