Just as public schools across the country are grappling to comply with No Child Left Behind mandates, charter schools are under greater scrutiny because of the federal education law, too.

Greater, but not exactly the same.

As has been the case since their inception, charter schools can have more flexibility under the still relatively new federal law, most notably in the teachers they hire.

Under No Child Left Behind, it's up to each state to determine whether charter school teachers must be state certified or licensed.

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In Pennsylvania, regular public school teachers are supposed to have state licenses, but in charter schools, up to 25 percent of teachers can be unlicensed. Gov. Ed Rendell's administration hasn't decided yet whether that should change.

With some charter school students locally continuing to produce less-than-stellar scores on state tests, it's difficult for some educators to understand why charter schools should be granted any leeway at all.

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Teacher Carolyn Lewis works with first-grader Taionna Addison from the Northside at the Urban League of Pittsburgh Charter School in East Liberty.

"There's no question that you should have all certified teachers," said Albert Fondy, president of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania federations of teachers. "It's pretty hard to understand why it makes sense in a regular school and doesn't make sense in a charter school.

"There ought to be consistency ... especially now with No Child Left Behind. It shows how illogical it was to allow 25 percent uncertified teachers in charter schools."

Locally, some charter school officials, including those from the Urban League of Pittsburgh Charter School and the new Propel Charter School that will open this fall in Homestead, said all their teachers are certified despite the fact that it's not a state requirement.

Across the country, 48 percent of teachers in the average charter school lack a teaching certificate, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, compared with 9 percent in a typical public school.

Among the 24 Pennsylvania charter schools that participated in the national survey, 53 percent of their teachers did not have permanent licenses. That means they had provisional, emergency or temporary credentials.

In some ways, Pennsylvania education officials are making efforts to evaluate all public schools in the state according to the same standards.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act outlines a series of consequences schools will face for failing to improve student performance, such as being required to give parents the option to send their children elsewhere or facing takeover by their state governments.

Unless state officials decide otherwise, those procedures only apply to schools that receive federal Title I funding -- money used to help low-income students. While many public schools across the country receive some Title I funding, not all do.

But Pennsylvania officials decided that the consequences for poor student performance outlined in No Child Left Behind should apply to all public schools in the state, including those not receiving Title I funds and charter schools.

That's why some charter schools were named on lists that state education officials released earlier this month, identifying them as schools where some or all of the youngsters scored poorly on state exams or where students did not meet state standards for attendance, graduation or test participation rates.

Northside Urban Pathways Charter School, for example, was on the list of schools required to give parents the choice to send their children elsewhere this fall. Chief Academic Officer Linda Clautti has filed an appeal of her school's placement based on what she said were inaccurate graduation rates. But Clautti acknowledged state education officials had correctly determined that her school had not met state reading or math standards on the exams.

Also performing below state reading or math standards were Manchester Academic Charter School and Pennsylvania Learners Online. They were among the schools placed on a list warning them that they will have to give parents the transfer option next year if their performance does not improve.

Joining them on the warning list was the Urban League of Pittsburgh Charter School because of its reading scores. Although it met all of the academic standards, Career Connections Charter High School was given a warning because its participation rate on the state exam was too low.

Innocenzio "Chenzie" Grignano, director of the Charter Schools Project at Duquesne University, believes the requirements prompted by No Child Left Behind will help bolster results at local charter schools that have been weak academically.

"Given their past performance, some charters are going to have to make up some ground," he said. "It's going to stretch a lot of these schools. I don't think there will be any grace. ... There are no students, no schools exempt from this thing."

Also as part of the state's effort to spur better achievement among charter schools, officials are now required to give more details on their annual reports about student performance, methods for measuring progress and how they plan to achieve their academic and nonacademic goals.

But state officials haven't yet addressed teacher certification at charter schools.

Under federal law, all public school teachers, including those at charter schools, are required to hold a four-year college degree and to prove they are competent to teach their subjects if they teach "core academic subjects" such as English, math, science, history or foreign languages.

The law leaves it up to the states to decide how to have teachers demonstrate their ability, with some type of state test being one of the most common methods used.

Regular public school teachers in Pennsylvania, who are now required to be licensed under state and federal law, have to pass the Praxis tests. Praxis results also can be used to evaluate the competency of certified charter school teachers.

But there's currently no test to determine if uncertified charter school teachers are competent to teach their subjects.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Vicki Phillips noted that failing charter schools in Pennsylvania can be shut down by having their charters revoked.

It's that bottom line fate, along with the other No Child Left Behind guidelines, that federal education officials maintain justifies giving states the option to decide whether charter school teachers should be certified.

"Charter schools operate with more flexibility and independence in exchange for strict accountability for results. One important area of flexibility is around teacher qualifications," said Dan Langan, a U.S. Department of Education spokesman and former press secretary for the Pennsylvania Education Department.

"By empowering charter schools with more flexibility in areas such as certification, charters are allowed to be more innovative and entrepreneurial -- but they must get results in order to stay open."