Are low-performing students more likely to exit charter schools? Evidence from New York City and Denver, Colorado

- We compare exiting behavior of students in charter and traditional public schools.
- We use data from two urban systems: Denver and New York City.
- Low performers are more likely than higher performers to exit charters.
- Low-performing students are equally likely to exit charter and public schools.

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.