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Education Next has a new report that details the positive role charter schools play in improving other public schools around them. The report compiled media accounts and school district initiatives that indicate traditional public school officials not only take notice of charter schools in their districts, but also become motivated to improve their own schools as a result.

This is a longstanding concept that echoes what CER has been saying all along about the lasting “ripple effect” that occurs as a result of introducing choice and competition to school districts. In 2007, award winning author and “Reformer Performer” Joe Williams collected stories from all 50 states that demonstrated the cause and effect relationship of introducing charter schools, and the steps taken by traditional public schools to keep up with the competition. For example, when San Carlos Learning Center in California soon became a model of success, schools nationwide soon adopted its learning techniques, including the very schools that had been railing against its opening. When a charter school for disabled students began to attract students on Long Island, NY, local schools responded by making available more resources for those students in need of them.

This past year, the Washington, DC public school system as a whole boasted the highest growth in reading and math proficiency since 2008 and 2009, respectively. The scores were part of a wider trend since 2007 that not only shows charter school students outperforming traditional public students, but also contributing to the overall improvement of DC Public Schools. DC Mayor Vincent Gray rightly viewed the 2013 DC-CAS scores as proof our nation’s capital is on the right track in transforming public education.

These anecdotes are not isolated incidents, and demonstrate the positive role charter schools play in shaking up the status quo and improving the educational landscape. We hope that these stories will serve as inspiration for more ripples that improve public education for students and parents.