Differences in Academic Performance between Elementary Charter Schools and Traditional Public Schools Martha L. Escalante and John R. Slate Department of Educational Leadership, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, USA Email: profslate@aol.com Abstract. In this study, the degree to which differences were present in reading for Grade 3 students; in reading and writing for Grade 4 students; and in reading and science for Grade 5 students between charter and traditional elementary public schools in Texas was determined. Participants in this study were Grades 3, 4, and 5 students who took the 2015 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness Reading, Writing, and Science tests. Grade 3, 4, and 5 students who were enrolled in traditional public schools had statistically significantly higher reading, mathematics, writing, and science scores than did students enrolled in charter schools. Implications of these results are provided. Keywords: Charter school, traditional public school, State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness tests, reading, mathematics, elementary school 1 Introduction The Charter School Program started in Minnesota in 1991 as an experiment to finance private schools. By 2013, over 2 million students were enrolled in charter schools in the United States (Flaker, 2014). According to the U.S. Department of Education (2015), “charter schools are public schools that operate with freedom from many of the local and state regulations that apply to traditional public schools” (School Choices for Parents section, para. 3). As such, charter schools have different characteristics from traditional public schools. Flaker (2014) identified the following ones: charter schools receive per-student funds from the government, do not charge tuition, and follow a lottery system for student admission. According to the Texas Education Agency (2016a), in the 2014-2015 school year 5,232,065 students were enrolled in Texas public schools. Of this number, Texas had 616 open enrollment charter school campuses present in which 228,153 students were enrolled. The total student enrollment in charter school increased by 244.9% compared to the 2004-2005 student enrollment that consisted of 66,160 students. Since then, the number of charter schools has grown tremendously with the authorization of the Texas legislature in 1995. In a study conducted by the Texas Center for Educational Research (2006), when compared to traditional public school, charter schools had a higher percentage of Black students (37% versus 14%), a lower percentage of White students (18% versus 38%), and a lower percentage of Hispanics (43% versus 45%). In comparison to Texas traditional public schools, charter schools had a higher percentage of students who were economically disadvantaged (68% versus 55%), a lower percentage of English Language Learners (11% versus 16%), and about an equal percentage of students who were receiving special education services (13% versus 12%). Conversely, these percentages have changed and in the 2014-2015 school year, the number of Black students enrolled in open- enrollment charter schools decreased, whereas the number of Hispanic students increased. Hispanics represented the largest percentage of total enrollment in open-enrollment charter schools (57.8%), followed by Black (20.1%), White (15.6%), Asian (4.5%), and multiracial (1.6%) students. The percentage of students who were identified as economically disadvantaged was 69.1%, and 21.6% were English Language Learners. Penning and Slate (2011) analyzed the demographics, funding, and academics of charter schools in Texas. They confirmed that charter schools serve a higher number of minority students than traditional public schools. In regard to funding, the state gives a higher percentage to charter schools as compared to traditional public schools; yet, the total revenue of charter schools is less than the one from traditional public schools because charter schools are not allowed to receive local taxes. Based on data from the Texas Education Agency, Penning and Slate (2011) concluded that charter schools’ academic Journal of Advances in Education Research, Vol. 2, No. 3, August 2017 https://dx.doi.org/10.22606/jaer.2017.23004 163 Copyright © 2017 Isaac Scientific Publishing JAER