NCES report says charters lower in reading, math

A new report from the U.S. National Center for Educational Statistics says fourth graders in traditional public schools scored higher in reading and math than students in charter schools in 2003. But the report says the quality of charter schools may not be an issue; parents may have chosen them because their children were already lagging their classmates. The report also notes that reading scores at charter schools in central cities serving mostly minority students were comparable to scores at traditional public schools.