As originally envisioned, charter schools were intended to be laboratories of innovation. Offered broad flexibility in exchange for performance-based accountability, they were well-positioned to test, validate, and adopt new practices in a public school environment. Thus far, however, charter schools have only partly delivered on this mission. While there are many pockets of excellence in the sector, there appears to be less innovation than was hoped for overall. One possible solution is greater public investment in research on charter-related education practices. Combining such research with greater inducements for charter schools to adopt proven practices could produce widespread performance gains that have been largely missing from the sector. This paper reviews the options for making charter schools more innovative and evidence-based.