Are low-performing students more likely to exit charter schools? Evidence from New York City and Denver, Colorado
Files
Accepted manuscript
Date
2017-02-01
Authors
Winters, Marcus A.
Clayton, Grant
Carpenter, Dick M.
Version
Accepted manuscript
OA Version
Citation
Marcus A Winters, Grant Clayton, Dick M Carpenter. 2017. "Are low-performing students more likely to exit charter schools? Evidence from New York City and Denver, Colorado." ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION REVIEW, Volume 56, pp. 110 - 117 (8).
Abstract
A common criticism of charter schools is that they systematically remove or “counsel out” their lowest performing students. However, relatively little is currently known about whether low-performing students are in fact more likely to exit charter schools than surrounding traditional public schools. We use longitudinal student-level data from two large urban school systems that prior research has found to have effective charter school sectors–New York City and Denver, Colorado–to evaluate whether there is a differential relationship between low-performance on standardized test scores and the probability that students exit their schools by sector attended. We find no evidence of a differential relationship between prior performance and the likelihood of exiting a school by sector. Low-performing students in both cities are either equally likely or less likely to exit their schools than are student in traditional public schools.