A Growing Movement: America's Largest Public Charter School Communities. Twelfth Annual Edition

Public charter schools are unique public schools that are allowed the freedom to be innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. Over the past ten years, enrollment in charter schools has nearly tripled--from 1.2 million students in 2006-07 to more than 3 million students in 2016-17. The number of school districts with a significant charter school presence continues to grow. In 2016-17, 19 districts had 30 percent or more of their students enrolled in charter schools, and 208 districts had at least 10 percent of their students enrolled in charter schools. In 2016-17, nearly 10 million public school students, or one in five, attended school in a district with at least 10,000 students in which 10 percent or more were enrolled in charter schools. This report identifies communities that have the highest percentage and the highest number of students enrolled in charter schools. When families have public school choice, they increasingly select charter schools over district-run schools. In fact, a recent survey by Phi Delta Kappan (PDK) found that 17 percent of parents would send their child to a charter school if location and capacity were not an issue--meaning that the potential number of charter school students is nearly 9 million. In addition, a 2016 survey commissioned by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (National Alliance) shows that 78 percent of parents would support a new charter school opening in their neighborhood. The National Alliance collected public school enrollment data for the 2016-17 school year to identify communities across the country where the highest proportions of students were enrolled in charter schools. To calculate these proportions, charter schools were mapped to geographic school district boundaries based on their address. This report compares the enrollment of charter schools located within geographic school district boundaries with district-run schools in the same area--resulting in "enrollment share."