Academic achievement of Georgia charter schools compared to traditional public schools: Implication for policy

This study evaluates the academic success of charter schools compared to the academic achievement of traditional public schools in the state of Georgia. The study introduces the history of charter schools in America and their impact on the American public education system in the years since the first charter school was launched in Minnesota in 1992. A detailed literature review contextualizes the debate over charter schools and their performance as compared to traditional public schools.;The study conducts an evaluation utilizing the Framework for Academic Quality which is a tool specifically designed by the National Consensus panel on Charter School Academic Quality to evaluate and assess the performance of charter schools. The study addresses six research questions and adopts an ex post facto research design to conduct quantitative analysis. The collected data is analyzed and compared using a causal-comparative approach. For this study, data were collected from the Georgia Achievement test scores documented by the Georgia Department of Education.;The data reported on the passing rates of Criterion Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) reading and math tests among 3rd and 5th graders during the study period did not seem to provide sufficient evidence to suggest any statistically significant difference between the academic performances of charter and public schools.