Since the passage of the first Charter School Law in Minnesota in 2001, there have been many studies that have examined the effect of Charter schools on student achievement with very mixed results. The Missouri legislature passed legislation in 1998 permitting the establishment of charter schools in a metropolitan school district or in an urban school district containing a city with a population greater than 350,000 inhabitants. In effect this limited the charters to St. Louis and Kansas City. This article provides a comparison of the student achievement of seventh and eighth grade students in communication arts and mathematics in Missouri charter schools with the achievement of seventh and eighth grade students in regular public schools in St. Louis and Kansas City, as measured by the statewide assessment.