Federal education officials have rejected the state’s request to measure charter school achievement using more lenient criteria.
 
State officials were notified by the U.S. Department of Education that charter schools must be assessed the same way as traditional schools.
 
The issue surfaced in September when the state's latest standardized test scores were released and for the first time, charter schools were treated as districts, not individual schools.
 
That made it easier for charters to reach a federal benchmark known as "adequate yearly progress," or AYP.
About 59% of charters made AYP under the new method.
Only 37% of charters would have made AYP without it.
A letter from federal officials released this week orders Pennsylvania to re-evaluate charter schools' AYP status using the old standard.