Alberta’s charter schools outperform government-run counterparts in all subjects: study

A new study has found that students at Alberta’s charter schools scored significantly higher on provincial achievement tests than their government-run counterparts.

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A new study has found that students at Alberta’s charter schools scored significantly higher on provincial achievement tests than their government-run counterparts.

The study conducted by SecondStreet.org examined 22 Provincial Achievement Tests written between 2022 and 2024.

It found that charter school students outperformed those in traditional public and Catholic schools on every test, across all subjects and grades.

On average, charter students scored 9.3 points higher than public school students and 7.7 points higher than Catholic school students.

“Ask any parent if they want their child to go to a school where students tend to score nearly ten points higher on average, and the answer is obvious,” said Bacchus Barua, SecondStreet.org’s research director and author of the study.

“The provincial government will want to think about how it can help more kids access these high-performing schools.”

The study found the largest gap in Grade 9 Mathematics, where charter students scored 14.1 percentage points higher than public school students in 2024.

The smallest gap was in Grade 6 Science, where results were 6.2 points higher than Catholic schools.Provinces in Canada usually offer three choices for children’s education: government-run public schools (including Catholic and Francophone), independent schools, and homeschooling. Alberta offers a fourth choice with charter schools.

Charter schools are tuition-free, government-funded, and must follow Alberta’s curriculum, but they operate independently under non-profit boards. They must accept all students if space allows, often through lottery systems, and focus on distinct learning approaches — ranging from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) to classical education.

Despite operating on slightly less funding than traditional public schools — about $9,400 per student compared to $10,460 in 2019/20 — charter schools have achieved consistently stronger results.

“It’s interesting that charter schools are funded by the government, run by non-profits, and yet their test scores were so much higher,” Barua added.

SecondStreet.org President Colin Craig said the results demonstrate that Alberta’s public education system could learn from charter models.

“When you talk with charter school staff, they’ll tell you that, like government-run public schools, their students also come from all walks of life — lower-income families, higher-income, new Canadian homes, and everything in between,” said Craig.

“Maybe the government could facilitate some sessions for charter schools to share advice with government schools.”

The findings come amid renewed debate over school choice in Alberta.

Last week, Elections Alberta approved a citizen initiative petition that would ask voters whether to end public funding for independent schools, which would eliminate much of the school choice in the province.

Many students attending independent schools do so because they were unable to find success in the public school system, according to John Jagersma, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools and Colleges in Alberta.

He explained that if the petition passes, it would devastate his sector and force the public school system to absorb an additional 55,000 students.

Taxpayers would also pay more for them, considering that students attending independent schools receive only 70% of the funding they would get if they went to public schools.

Paige MacPherson, associate director of education policy at the Fraser Institute, told True North that Alberta is a case study showing that higher education spending does not automatically yield better results.

She said the province outperforms almost every other in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) scores.

According to the study, Alberta’s 48 charter schools now educate about 15,400 students — just 2% of the province’s total enrolment — but demand far exceeds capacity, with an estimated 20,000 students on waiting lists.

“Charter schools not only provide parents and students with more choices in terms of education, but the findings show these schools outperform government-run public schools,” the study concludes.

“On average, students attending charter schools outperformed students attending government-run traditional public and government-run Catholic schools in all 22 of 22 instances where comparisons could be made between 2022-2024.”