Few topics in education inspire as much debate as charter schools, which first appeared on the educational landscape in 1992 and now include some 3,500 schools operating in 40 states. Fueling this debate are recent studies of charter school student achievement (Buddin and Zimmer, 2005; AFT, 2004; Booker et al., 2004; Sass, 2005; Hoxby, 2004; Bifulco and Ladd, 2005a; Hanushek et al., 2002).
While these studies have been informative, they generally have not shed light on a broader set of questions, including the effect charter schools have on the distribution of students by race/ethnicity and ability. Charter school critics argue that charter success might be illusory if charter schools are simply recruiting the best students from traditional public schools and that charter schools may further stratify an already racially stratified system.
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