1. Urban Charter Schools Demographics in MINNESOTA March 2015

2. Introduction
The is a report on urban charter schools in major cities in Minnesota
Urban charter schools are at the forefront of public education and on-going efforts to create better outcomes for students.
Many urban charter schools have a specific mission to target and serve students with the greatest educational disadvantages, either by virtue of family background or poor prior instruction.
Others got their start as a way to deal with rapid urban growth that axed the capacities of local districts to provide buildings and staff to meet growing demand.
CREDO studied the attributes of students and schools in Minneapolis.

3. Introduction
Five criteria were used to select which urban communities to study; full details are in the Technical Appendix.
CREDO developed a narrow definition of “urban” to select schools for this study. The aim was to choose schools that were within the joint boundaries of cities and school districts.
Multiple sources are used to develop boundaries for “urban regions,” including NCES locale codes, school addresses, and school district information. More detailed information is included in the Technical Appendix for the study.
Student & School Counts are derived from student test data.

4. Research Questions This study answers the following questions:
What does the urban public education landscape look in Minnesota?
How do the student attributes in urban charter schools differ from their traditional public school (TPS) counterparts?
Does the level of achievement differ between students in charter schools and TPS in their same cities?
Given the mission of some charter operators to target disadvantaged students, do we see proof they do so?

5. Overview of Public Charter Schools in MINNESOTA

6. MN Student Demographics
Statewide Demographic Trends by Location – All TPS Students
Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Core of Common Data 2011

7. MN Student Demographics
Statewide Demographic Trends by Location – All Charter Students
Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Core of Common Data 2011

8. TPS Market Share Over Time
Statewide Demographic Trends by Location – All TPS Students
Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Core of Common Data 2011

9. Charter Market Share Over Time
Statewide Demographic Trends by Location – All Charter Students
Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Core of Common Data 2011

10. TPS Growth Rates
Statewide Demographic Trends by Location – All TPS Students
Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Core of Common Data 2011

11. Charter School Growth Rates
Statewide Demographic Trends by Location – All Charter Students
Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Core of Common Data 2011

12. MN Student Demographics
Aggregate Statistics for Students in Cities Selected for Study

13. MN Student Demographics
Aggregate Statistics for Students in Cities Selected for Study

14. MN Student Demographics
Aggregate Statistics for Students in Cities Selected for Study

15. MN Student Demographics
Aggregate Statistics for Students in Cities Selected for Study

16. Comparison of Achievement Scores for Charter Schools and TPS

17. Achievement Scores
Because charter schools may not be located in all parts of a city, they may not have the array of students and academic talent that exists across the larger number of schools in the greater public education school district.
To show these relationships, we first present the community-wide average results for math and reading, as revealed via statewide testing regimes.
The results are then parsed to show the results for TPS and charter schools in each region.

18. Urban Achievement
Regional Average Math Achievement Score by Type of School for Minneapolis Compared to State Average Math Achievement

19. Urban Achievement
Weighted Average Math Achievement Score of Minneapolis Compared to State Average Math Achievement

20. Urban Achievement
Regional Average Reading Achievement Score by Type of School for Minneapolis Compared to State Average Reading Achievement

21. Urban Achievement
Weighted Average Reading Achievement Score of Minneapolis Compared to State Average Reading Achievement

22. Minneapolis Demographics

23. Regional Enrollment Trends by Year
Minneapolis Student Counts by Sector and by Year

24. Where Do Urban Students Come From?
Locale of school previously attended by students
transferring to Minneapolis Charter Schools

25. Regional Urban Student Demographics
Regional Enrollment Trends by Race in Minneapolis Schools

26. Regional Urban Student Demographics
Regional Enrollment Trends by Race in Minneapolis Schools

27. Regional Urban Student Demographics
Regional Enrollment Trends by Demographics in Minneapolis Schools

28. Regional Urban Student Demographics
Regional Enrollment Trends by Demographics in Minneapolis Schools