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School Choice In Indianapolis: Effects Of Charter, Magnet, Private, And Traditional Public Schools, Mark Borends, R. Joseph Waddington

Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation Faculty Publications

School choice researchers are often limited to comparing one type of choice with another (e.g., charter schools vs. traditional public schools). One area researchers have not examined is the effects of different school types within the same urban region. We fill this gap by analyzing longitudinal data for students (grades 3–8) in Indianapolis, using student fixed effects models to estimate the impacts of students switching from a traditional public school to a charter, magnet, Catholic, or other private school. We find that students experience no differences in their achievement gains after transferring from a traditional public school to a charter …