Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

In order to evaluate the effects of charter schools, it is necessary to consider not only the productivity of charter schools but also any effects on traditional public school students, and how these effects vary based on the relative achievement of charter and traditional public schools. Since its beginning in 1997, the charter sector in North Carolina has experienced a significant shift in achievement relative to traditional public schools which may result in differential competitive effects across time. Using panel data covering all public school students in North Carolina from 1997 to 2016, I study the effects of charter schools on traditional public school student math and reading test scores. The model I estimate eliminates student-school spell effects to account for non-random student sorting between schools and the endogenous location of charter schools. The model also eliminates linear school trends to account for the possibility that charter schools locate based on trends in traditional public school unobserved characteristics. Results show that students in traditional public schools competing with higher achieving charter schools experience gains in both math and reading test scores while those competing with lower achieving charter schools see no effects to small negative effects. Between 1997 and 2005 charter schools have no effect on traditional public school student math or reading test scores, but between 2006 and 2016 charter schools have small positive effects on reading scores which is likely due to the large increase in relative charter school achievement between periods.