A new report, to be released today, finds that charter schools are improving at a faster clip than traditional schools and invest more of their money in the classroom, the Los Angeles Times reports today.
The report, from the University of Southern California, finds that charter schools are making bigger gains in academic achievement, though they lag traditional schools in helping English-learners become proficient in their new language.
Most previous reports have not concluded that charter schools perform better than regular public schools, though it was unclear whether the results were driven by the quality of education or the fact that charter schools tend to start out with lower-performing students.
Charter schools are public schools, funded with taxpayer dollars, that are freed from many of the regulations governing traditional schools. In the San Diego Unified school district, about one in 10 students attends one — nearly three times the state average.