In America today, families in almost every urban community have some kind of public school choice. This report focuses on "public school choice," under which families are able to choose from both an array of traditional public schools and public charter schools. Public school choice has grown rapidly in the past 20 years; new charter schools have emerged with support from state and federal policy and philanthropists, while district school choice has grown alongside or in competition with charter schools. Choice, in one form or another, is now woven deeply into today's urban education landscape. Over the course of a year, researchers with the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) looked across 18 cities to answer three basic questions for urban locales with both charter and district-run schools of choice. Is the education system continuously improving? Do all students have access to a high-quality education? Is the education strategy rooted in the community? The 18 cities in this study are: Atlanta, Boston, Camden, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Memphis, New Orleans, New York City, Oakland, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Tulsa, and Washington, D.C. To answer the three questions, CRPE looked across traditional district schools, charter schools, and the organizations that support both. [Foreword by Robin Lake.]