ABSTRACT
For well over a decade, some of the country's leading authorities on educational reform have argued strongly that competition is the key to school improvement. Charter schools are one experiment in introducing market forces to public education. While the charter school movement is not an expression of pure competition or free market values, it is a significant step in the direction of deregulation. Most early charter school advocates did not qualify their claims and certainly seemed unaware of the consistent research that school performance is only marginally related to its form of governance. The charter school revolution claimed that it could lessen this relationship between privilege and achievement by creating schools that are smaller, more innovative and more motivational, and hold themselves to higher standards. This chapter examines the research concerning the observable results of the charter school movement.
