Contingent on Type: How the First Charter School Impacts District Academic Growth

Abstract

How do charter schools impact the academic growth of their local school districts? While the literature focuses on large districts with many charters, the most common experience is for districts to have one or no charter school within their jurisdiction. We compile 15 years of data for California districts and use fixed effects analyses to estimate the changes in enrollment and academics after a first, second, or third charter school opens. After first and second charters open, districts experience an average annual decrease in enrollment of 60 students – less than 1% of total district enrollment and revenue. However, charters appear to have a non-significant or small positive (+0.02 SD) average annual impact on district academics. These and additional analyses suggest that charter schools trigger competition with their local school districts that encourage academic growth – enough competition to counter or even overcome the negative effect on academics via finances.