TY  - JOUR
AU  - Holmes,George M.
AU  - DeSimone,Jeff
AU  - Rupp,Nicholas G.
TI  - Does School Choice Increase School Quality?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9683
PY  - 2003
Y2  - May 2003
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9683
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9683.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jeffrey S. DeSimone
Department of Economics
University of Texas at Arlington
701 S. West St.
Arlington, TX 76019
Tel: 817/272-3286
Fax: 817/272-3145
E-Mail: jdesimone@uta.edu

Nicholas G. Rupp
East Carolina University
E-Mail: ruppn@ecu.edu
AB  - 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.
ER  -