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.