At the national level, NEA members attending the 1993 Representative Assembly voiced their support for charter schools as an innovative option within public education, provided the charter schools remain public institutions accountable to their local communities. In 1995, NEA invited affiliates to participate in a Charter Schools Initiative , a five-year effort to develop six charter schools and learn from that experience. More formal findings will be released by the end of 1997 by an independent research team at UCLA who are conducting an evaluation of the Charter Schools Initiative and its charter schools. The four-year study is the first national examination of charter schools. It is being conducted by RPP International of Berkeley, California, in partnership with the University of Minnesota and the Institute for Responsive Education.
Charter schools are smaller than other public schools.
Smaller charter schools are more likely to be newly created schools. Many charter schools have nontraditional grade patterns. Nearly all charter schools face implementation problems. On average, charter schools enroll diverse students, but . . . Charter students' racial and ethnic composition varies widely across states.