Just 11 states, plus the District of Columbia, earned a grade of A or B on whether their laws support charter schools, according to the rankings by a research and advocacy group.
Few of the winners in the federal Race to the Top grant competition were deemed to be in the upper tier, according to the report by the Center for Education Reform, a Washington group that supports charter schools and school choice.
Of the round-one and round-two Race to the Top awardees, only the District of Columbia earned an A. Just New York state and Florida received a B.
The center graded states charter school laws and practices in four categories: whether they allow and encourage multiple authorizers; the number of schools they allow; how much independence they give charters from state and district rules; and whether funding is on par with that of other public schools.
