Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: How many charter schools are there in the U.S.?
As of 2016-2017 there were an estimated 6,900 public charter schools in 42 states and the District of Columbia (2016–17) with approximately 3.1 million students, a sixfold increase in enrollment over the past 15 years.[3] In 2015 alone, more than 400 new charter schools opened while 270 schools closed due to low enrollment, lack of finances or low performance.[4] Waiting lists grew from an average of 233 in 2009 to 277 in 2012,[5] with places allocated by a lottery.[6] They educate the majority of children in New Orleans Public Schools.[7] Some charter schools provide a specialized curriculum (for example in arts, mathematics, or vocational training). Charter schools are attended by choice.[8]
Corbett Charter School (CCS) is a charter high school in Corbett, Oregon, United States administered by the Corbett School District. In February 2014 the school district voted to terminate the school's lease, leaving it without a school building. Also in 2014, the "Washington Post" selected Corbett Charter School as the 3rd most challenging high school in the U.S.
Charter schools are independent public schools which are exempt from many of the state and local regulations which govern most public schools. These exemptions grant charter schools some autonomy and flexibility with decision-making, such as teacher union contracts, hiring, and curriculum. In return, charter schools are subject to stricter accountability on spending and academic performance. The majority of states (and the District of Columbia) have charter school laws, though they vary in how charter schools are approved. Minnesota was the first state to have a charter school law and the first charter school in the United States, City Academy High School, opened in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1992. The prevalence of charter schools has increased with the support of the Obama Administration. Under the Administration, the Department of Education has provided funding incentives to states and school districts that increase the number of charter schools.
A language/culture-based charter school is similar in many respects to a religious charter school. Lawrence D. Weinberg, in his book Religious Charter Schools: Legalities and Practicalities, argues that a charter school can be religious in many ways and that charter schools may accommodate religious beliefs, but not endorse religious beliefs. Religious charter schools would include Catholic schools that converted to charters as happened in Washington, D.C. and some Hebrew or Arabic language schools.
The Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) opposes charter schools contending they are allocated funds by the state that are better allocated by school boards. The PSBA Education Research and Policy Center presents their data in the "Costs of Charter and Cyber Schools:" https://www.psba.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Charter_School_Funding-White-Paper_Update_2014.pdf The Pennsylvania Department of Education provides an explanation of charter school funding based on public law in "How Are Charter Schools Funded;" http://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/Charter%20Schools/Pages/Charter-School-Funding.aspx
The Colorado Charter School Institute is an independent agency of the Colorado Department of Education and is the only independent, statewide charter school authorizer in the U.S. state of Colorado. The Colorado Charter School Institute authorizes 39 Colorado charter schools. The Colorado Charter School Institute is committed to creating and sustaining a portfolio of high-quality public school options that meet the needs of all students. Schools authorized by CSI have the autonomy to choose the educational methods that best meet the needs of their students, while being held accountable to clear expectations for performance. Learn more: https://www.csi.state.co.us/
Landsberg said that "L.A. International is an example of a charter school that has struggled to get on its feet, a reflection of just how difficult it is to start a new school from scratch. It is also an example of the relatively lax oversight -- and scant support -- that charters have historically received from the Los Angeles Unified School District. Finally, its students' devotion demonstrates how even academically struggling charters can connect to pupils who don't fit in at large, traditional schools."
The YDA organization is composed of "chartered units" with one from each U.S. state or territory. YDA holds a National Convention every two years during the summer of odd-numbered years with complex rules for how many votes each chartered unit may cast. The YDA National Committee meets at least three times per year and consists of the President of each chartered unit, two representatives of different gender identities from each chartered unit, and a number of other officers and committee and caucus chairs.
For its first six years, the school was known as Sturgis Charter School. In 2004, the Sturgis board changed the school's name to "Sturgis Charter Public School," in keeping with a public relations initiative of the Massachusetts Charter School Association. According to the enabling legislation for Massachusetts charter schools, a "charter" school is by statutory definition a public school. Sturgis determined that many people were unaware of this and thus added the term "Public" for clarity.
On October 26, 2006, Fell Charter Elementary School sent a Charter Renewal Package to the District declaring its intent to renew the charter commencing with the 2007–08 school year. The District conducted a comprehensive review of the school, including two site visits to the school in September and November 2006. It then notified Fell Charter Elementary School of its intent to deny renewal. On April 2, 2007, the Carbondale Area Board of Education voted to revoke/not renew the Fell Charter Elementary School charter. Fell Charter Elementary School appealed the decision to the Pennsylvania Charter School Appeals Board. The CAB found that The District did not meet its statutory obligation of presenting compelling evidence to substantiate its reasons for non-renewal and approved a renewal of Fell's charter. The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the charter school's grant and loan application in January 2010. The school will receive a $5 million loan to build a new school facility.
A common approach in education evaluation research is to compare the learning gains of individual students in charter schools to their gains when they were in traditional public schools. Thus, in effect, each student acts as his/her own control to assess the impact of charter schools. A few selected examples of this work find that charter schools on average outperform the traditional public schools that supplied students, at least after the charter school had been in operation for a few years. A possible limitation of this type of study is that it does not automatically distinguish between possible benefits of how the school operates (e.g. school structure) and possible peer effects, that is, effects of students on each other.[52][53][54][55] At the same time, there appears to be a wide variation in the effectiveness of individual charter schools.[55]
Charter schools operate with considerably more independence than traditional public schools. However, Massachusetts has two kinds of charter schools - Commonwealth Charters and Horace Mann Charters. Horace Mann charter schools differ from Commonwealth charter schools as they must be located within a school district. Both kinds of charter schools are free to structure their curriculum and school environment; for instance, many charter schools fit more instructional hours into a year by running longer school days and providing instruction on weekends and during the summer. Because few charter schools are unionized, they can hire and fire teachers and administrative staff without regard to the collectively bargained seniority and tenure provisions that constrain such decisions in most public schools. Although charter students made up only 2.9 percent of U.S. public school enrollment in 2008–2009, charter enrollment has grown rapidly and seems likely to accelerate in the near future. The growth of charter schools is an important component of the contemporary education reform movement's pursuit of accountability and flexibility in public education. Proponents see charter schools' freedom from regulation as a source of educational innovation, with the added benefit of providing a source of competition that may prompt innovation and improvement in the rest of the public system. At the same time, charter schools are controversial because, after a transition period in which the state provides subsidies, they receive a tuition payment for each enrolled student paid by students' home districts. In Massachusetts, tuition payments are determined largely by the average per-pupil expenditure in sending districts. Not surprisingly, therefore, public school districts are concerned about the revenue lost when their students enroll in charter schools.
In 2012, Harlem Success Academy Charter School 1 became the first city charter school to be awarded a National Blue Ribbon. Harlem Success Academy Charter School 3 was awarded a National Blue Ribbon by the U.S. Department of Education in 2015. In 2016, both Harlem Success Academy Charter School 4 and Bronx Success Academy Charter School 1 were awarded National Blue Ribbons. Success Academy Bed‐Stuy 1 in Brooklyn and Success Academy Harlem 2 in Manhattan received National Blue Ribbons in 2018.
In 2012, the annual survey produced by the Center for Education Reform, a pro-charter school group, found that 60% of charter school students qualified for free or reduced lunches. This qualification is a common proxy for determining how many low-income students a given school enrolls. The same survey found that half of all charter school students fall into categories that are classified as 'at risk'."
CSUSA shares its headquarters address with Florida Charter Educational Foundation, the holder of the charter for six of CSUSA's schools. 
CSUSA was nominated by the state to turn over three failing schools in Indianapolis. a first-in-the-nation type project. The three schools Thomas Carr Howe Community High School, Emmerich Manual High School, and Emma Donnan Middle School. The schools are now given over on a performance contract, which grants the operator, Charter Schools USA, four years to improve.
However, a 2009 study of charter school staffing by Stuit and Smith examined how teacher turnover differed between charter and traditional schools. The study found that charter schools had a teacher turnover rate of 25% while the rate at traditional public schools was 14%.
The Villages Charter High School is a charter school serving The Villages community and surrounding areas in the U.S. state of Florida. It is part of The Villages Charter Schools. The Villages High School is located at 251 Buffalo Trail The Villages, FL 32162.
The U.S. Department of Education's 1997 First Year Report, part of a four-year national study on charters, was based on interviews of 225 charter schools in 10 states. The report found charters tended to be small (fewer than 200 students) and represented primarily new schools, though some schools had converted to charter status. Charter schools often tended to exist in urban locations, rather than rural. This study also found enormous variation among states. Charter schools tended to be somewhat more racially diverse, and to enroll slightly fewer students with special needs or limited English proficiency than the average schools in their state.[26]
The growth of the charter school movement has been paralleled by the growth of an accountability movement within the public education system. If charter schools have the potential of being the future "public schools," then we must confirm that they are running more effectively than the traditional school. As a result, many accountability studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of charter schools. Many accounts state that overall charter schools are doing a good job in meeting their goals. A study by the Center for Education Reform showed that between the mid 1990s and the fall of 2000, most charters were "doing the job they were designed to do, with 88 major reports now showing that charter schools are improving education for American kids."
The school curriculum specializes in sciences and mathematics. As of 2011 the school promoted how many of its students performed well in science fairs.
A November 3, 2009, article described Davids as a "Bronx parent who went from charter school foe to cheerleader in under a year." In 2008, it was reported, Davids had been co-president of the parent association of P.S. 160 in the Bronx, where she led the opposition against a new charter school, Equality Charter School, which was set to be located in the same building. After leading protests against the school, however, Davids "sent in her daughter's application to the charter school and began helping the charter recruit other students." She later explained she had been misinformed about how big the charter school would be, and that "A lot of parents are just opposed to charter schools in general, and that's because most parents don't know exactly what a charter school is."
The city also has several public charter schools: Infinity Charter School, Sylvan Heights Science Charter School, Premier Arts and Science Charter School and Capital Area School for the Arts. A growing number of statewide, virtual, public charter schools provide residents with many alternatives to the bricks and mortar public school system. The cyber charter school Commonwealth Connections Academy Cyber School is headquartered in Harrisburg.
Of the nine charter schools in District 3 , eight are in Harlem. Many black and Hispanic families in Harlem send their kids to charter or private schools, or to better-performing public schools elsewhere in the district. The public non charter schools in Harlem have been criticized for decades as being educationally among the worst in the city. By contrast, the charters in Harlem have been praised for their quality of education, even when compared to charters elsewhere in the nation. Charters have been criticized on other grounds, but not uniquely to Harlem, except for objections to there being so many charters in Harlem competing with public non charter schools for classroom space. Transfers of teachers involuntarily into Harlem in the 1960s, by sending the teachers to schools with difficult students, were reputedly intended by the City's Board of Education to drive unwanted teachers out of the profession altogether.
Whether the charter school model can be scaled up to the size of a public noncharter school system has been questioned, when teaching demands more from teachers and many noncharter teachers are apparently unable to teach in the way charters seek, as has been suggested by Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, Diane Ravitch, education historian and former assistant U.S. education secretary, Mark Roosevelt, former schools chief for Pittsburgh, Penn., U.S., and Dave Levin, of the KIPP charters[104] However, some, such as Eva Moskowitz of Success Academy Charter Schools, believe that the work is hard but performable and compensable and that the model can be scaled up.[105]
In 2006 PCS was named California Charter School of the Year by the Charter School Association. The class of 2006 includes 8 National Merit Finalists, and all of the students in this class were accepted at colleges. In 2006, PCS's AP World History program (directed by teacher Tara Firenzi) won an award for being the best AP World History program in the nation.
PCS's music program, currently led by Heather Calame, has produced many high-ranking musicians, such as the LeBoeuf brothers, and continues to win recognition at the Anaheim music festival.
PCS was named the #3 high school overall in the nation (behind Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, VA and Oxford Academy in Cypress, CA) and the #1 charter school in the nation in the December 4, 2009, issue of U.S. News & World Report. P.C.S was #8 in the nation and the 2nd Charter School (as of January 2013). Pacific Collegiate School was named a 2017 California Gold Ribbon School by the California Department of Education, and ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the 2017 Top Public School in California and the No. 10 Public School in the nation.