Does School Choice Increase School Quality? Evidence from North Carolina Charter Schools

Abstract

Federal “No Child Left Behind” legislation, which enables students of low-performing schools to exercise public school choice, exemplifies a widespread belief that competing for students will spur public schools to higher achievement. We investigate how the introduction of school choice in North Carolina, via a dramatic increase in the number of charter schools, affects student performance on statewide end-of-year testing at traditional public schools. We find test score gains from competition that are robust to a variety of specifications. Charter school competition causes an approximately one percent increase in the score, which constitutes about one quarter of the average yearly growth.

Citation

Holmes, G.M., DeSimone, J. and Rupp, N.G. (2006), "Does School Choice Increase School Quality? Evidence from North Carolina Charter Schools", Gronberg, T.J. and Jansen, D.W. (Ed.) Improving School Accountability (Advances in Applied Microeconomics, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 131-155. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0278-0984(06)14006-7