Students who flee struggling Pittsburgh Public Schools for charter schools often land in programs that also are performing poorly.

In a report issued at last night's school board meeting, district officials found that four of the city's six authorized charter schools had fallen behind on adequate yearly progress by the beginning of this school year.

The district spends $15 million a year to keep the charter schools going, but just one of the schools posted impressive test scores, according to city schools Chief of Staff Phil Parr.

Two charter schools authorized in 2001, City Charter High School, Downtown, and Renaissance Academy of Pittsburgh Alternative of Hope in East Liberty, have not operated long enough to be measured.

Of the others, Career Connections Charter High School in Lawrenceville was the only one to show significant overall gains on state tests. African-American students judged proficient in reading jumped from 0 percent to 60 percent between 2001-02 and 2002-03, while proficient white students jumped from 19 percent to 58 percent.

In math, African-American students judged proficient jumped from 0 percent to 55 percent, and white students from 6 percent to 56 percent.

A state investigation into those gains found no irregularities, according to Parr. Despite the improvement, the school was placed on the warning list for adequate yearly progress because only about 85 percent of students -- not 95 percent, as the federal No Child Left Behind Act requires -- took the tests.

The school also failed to provide required graduation rates.

At Manchester Academic Charter School on the North Side, the percentage of fifth-graders proficient in reading decreased from 57 percent to 33 percent, and in math, from 36 percent to 22 percent. Scores in both subjects are below district averages.

The percentage of eighth-graders reading proficiently dropped from 33 percent to 18 percent, while math proficiency remained about the same.

At Northside Urban Pathways, the percentage of eighth-graders reading proficiently increased from 18 percent to 30 percent, but in math, dropped from 14 percent to 3 percent. Eleventh-graders' performance in reading increased from 13 percent to 36 percent proficient, and in math remained about the same. All scores remain below district averages, the report found.

At the Urban League of Pittsburgh Charter School, proficiency increased from 11 percent to 26 percent in reading and from 9 percent to 44 percent in math. Those scores remain below district averages, however.