Charter schools in North Carolina are increasingly serving the interests of relatively able white students in racially imbalanced schools.

This paper examines the evolution of the charter school sector in North Carolina
between 1999 and 2012 through the lens of a market model.  The authors examine
trends in the mix of students enrolled in charter schools, the racial imbalance of
charter schools, the quality of the match betweenparental preferences in charter
schools relative to the quality ofmatch in traditional public schools, and the distribution
of test score performance across charter schools relative those in traditional public
schools serving similar students over time.   

The findings imply that the charter schools in North Carolina are increasingly
serving the interests of relatively ablewhite students in racially imbalanced schools.