DC Charter Scores Not Used to Determine AYP in DC Schools?

NAEP's (download the report) 2009 Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) scores show NCLB continuing to work its magic in American schools. Trend averages show no change from 2007 in 4th grade math and a 2 point increase in 8th grade math. And the black and poor test score deficits continue to widen when compared to white, well-fed students. So as test scores become even more important for advancement in a society already obsessed with them, the chances for the poor and the brown to move up become even more remote, even as these populations (see Detroit and Cleveland) become more demoralized as jobs become more scarce. Is this reality related to why Seth and Caitlin are learning Mandarin out there in the leafy suburbs?

TUDA does not break out scores between charters and public schools, but I did come across this interesting piece of information that would seem to reveal an interesting and unpublished fact: that DC charter school annual test scores are not reported to the U. S. Department of Education as part the District's AYP Report.

Some charter schools that operate within the geographic boundaries of a school district are independent of the district and are not included in the districts’ Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report to the U.S. Department of Education under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Beginning in 2009, charter schools of this type were no longer included in the results for TUDA districts as they had been in past NAEP assessments.

School districts vary in whether the charter schools within their boundaries are independent of the districts. In 2007, charter schools were included in the TUDA district results if they were listed as part of the district’s Local Education Agency in the NCES Common Core of Data. In 2009, charter schools are included in TUDA district results if they contribute to the district’s AYP results as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. . . . All charter schools in the District of Columbia are independent of the school district, and none were included in their TUDA sample in 2009 (p. 68).

Could it be that DC corporate charters have no AYP requirements? I await enlightenment.