Working Paper: NBER ID: w9683
Authors: George M. Holmes; Jeff Desimone; Nicholas G. Rupp
Abstract: Federal No Child Left Behind' legislation, which enables students of low-performing schools to exercise public school choice, exemplies 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 across the state, affects the performance of traditional public schools on statewide tests. We find test score gains from competition that are robust to a variety of specifications. The introduction of charter school competition causes an approximate one percent increase in the score, which constitutes about one quarter of the average yearly growth.
Keywords: school choice; charter schools; school quality; competition; public education
JEL Codes: H4; I2; L1
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Distance to nearest charter school (I21) | Quality of traditional schools (I21) |
| Charter school competition (L39) | Quality of traditional schools (I21) |
| Proximity of charter schools (I24) | Test scores at traditional public schools (I21) |
| Charter school competition (L39) | Test scores at traditional public schools (I21) |