More than a third of charter schools in 2010-11 did not disclose the number of English-language learners in their data reports to the federal government, says a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The report from last month found 37 percent of charters left blank a question dealing with the English-learner population at the school.
The omissions could be partly definitional, the GAO concludes. The form asks schools for the number of students enrolled in “English-language instruction educational programs” without clearly defining “program.” The GAO urges the Department of Education to systemically evaluate data-reporting practices in charter schools to see how often such omissions occur.
