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 200, 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."
Stakeholders seem to uphold this consensus, as shown in a study conducted by the Columbia Teachers College of parental evaluations of traditional public schools and charters in Washington D.C. In the survey, "parents with children in charter schools rated their teachers, principals, facilities, and schools higher than their traditional public school counterparts." While this satisfaction could be influenced by the fact that parents chose to send their students to the school (and are therefore more likely to approve of the school), it is also noted in the study that "many charter schools have a culture that provides parents opportunities to influence school management, and to become more involved with the processes of school governance and functioning."
However, there are many who claim that overall, there is no evidence that charter schools perform better than traditional schools - and that charter schools have other adverse effects on public school students. Tal Levy, in his essay entitled "Charter School Legislation and the Entitlement of Race" argues that the high number of minority students that enroll in charter schools actually deepens segregation within the public school system. He states "70% of African American students in charter schools attend intensely segregated minority schools compared to 34% of African American public school students."