CHARTER SCHOOLS GET HIGH MARKS.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

California's charter schools are more likely to meet their academic goals than traditional public schools, a study released Tuesday said.

The study by EdSource, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based nonpartisan organization that studies public education, compared growth in scores on standardized tests between charter and regular public schools.

The study used scores from California's Academic Performance Index, which includes the results of several standardized tests, and the California High School Exit Exam, to measure student performance.

Across all grades, the study found that classroom-based charter schools were 33 percent more likely to meet student improvement goals than traditional schools. Charter middle schools far exceeded regular public schools, with 81 percent meeting those goals on the API, compared with 54 of traditional public schools.

The EdSource study didn't examine why charter schools outperformed traditional public schools.

The study's findings illustrate that charter schools - especially those serving high school students - ``get kids who are far below grade level, and we bring them up faster than noncharter schools,'' said Caprice Young, a former Los Angeles Unified School District board member who now chairs the California Charter Schools Association.

California's charter school law was approved in 1992, allowing for a system of public schools that are free from many state regulations. The hope was that greater flexibility would lead to improved academics.

There are 180,000 students enrolled in 510 charter schools in California. About 65 of those charter schools, including some of the oldest in the state, are in Los Angeles Unified.

The study also found that classroom-based charter schools performed better than independent study programs, which lagged behind traditional public schools.

The EdSource study comes less than two months after the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit think tank, Economic Policy Institute, released a national study showing that charter schools not only don't perform any better than traditional public schools but in many cases, they do worse.

Unlike the Economic Policy Institute study, EdSource's is an academic report by an unbiased organization, said Gary Larson, a spokesman for the California Charter Schools Association.

``EdSource is coming at this with a solid level of objectivity and there is no question that there are those that have a vested interest in seeing the charter school movement fail,'' Larson said.

While the study lauds charter schools' academic accomplishments, it didn't address funding. A recent audit of what had been the state's largest charter school raised concerns about lax oversight.