Why charter schools improve over time

The Cato Institute looks at charter schools:

or a deeper understanding of charters as a market-oriented reform, it is necessary to examine the dynamics of the charter sector.

Our research on charter school quality in Texas brings new evidence to bear on these important issues. Our analysis clearly indicates that charter school quality has improved over time. As seen in the figures below, the distribution of charter school quality initially lies to the left of that for traditional public schools but then converges and subsequently moves slightly to the right of the public school distribution.

This improvement is the result of three consistent changes. First, schools that close are drawn disproportionately from the least effective charter schools. Second, schools that open during the period of study far outperform those that close; the average value-added for new charters is roughly equal to the average among existing charters. Third, charter schools remaining open throughout the decade from 2001 to 2011 exhibit increases in average school value-added.

This is a key thing to understand. A charter school that performs badly will close.

Non charter schools that perform badly rarely close. Even when students flee them, nearby schools are now allowed to expand to allow more students in, so students are forced to keep going to these badly performing schools.

The Cato research shows that school performance improves when you allow failing schools to close.