Purpose: School choice policies are expected to generate competition leading to improvement in school practices. However, little is known about how competition operates in public education--particularly in charter schools. This paper examines charter-school leaders' competitive perception formation and the actions taken in response to competition.…

One common expectation of school choice policies is that they will generate competition between schools. Despite the large body of work examining whether competition improves student outcomes, we know less about how competition works in the educational sector. We know even less about how charter school leaders perceive and respond to competitive…

School choice policies are often based on the idea that competition will generate better outcomes for all students. Yet there is limited empirical research about how school leaders actually perceive competition and whom they view as rivals. Drawing on concepts from economic sociology, I study principals' competitive networks and the sets of…