Struggling academies could face rapid intervention and being taken over by another academy chain, in new powers proposed by the education secretary.
Nicky Morgan has announced that legislation will be extended to address failing and "coasting" academies as well as local authority schools.
Mrs Morgan said underperforming academies should be "held to account".
Heads' leader Brian Lightman says underperformance needs to be tackled, regardless of the type of school.
The ATL teachers' union said "the government seems to be finally waking up to the fact that some academies underperform".
Most secondary schools in England are now academies - and in his autumn statement, the chancellor George Osborne spoke of the government's aim to "make local authorities running schools a thing of the past".
While the response to underachieving local authority schools has been to turn them into academies, there have been questions about the action taken when academies are underperforming.
The proposals announced by Mrs Morgan are an amendment to the Education and Adoption Bill, currently before Parliament.
The changes will mean that the new, tougher measures to raise standards in "coasting" schools will apply to all types of school, whether local authority, academy or free school.
The previous form of the proposed legislation did not apply to academies, but Mrs Morgan put forward an amendment to allow "robust action" for all types of school.
"Underperformance is unacceptable wherever it occurs - whether that is in a maintained school or an academy," said the education secretary's written ministerial statement.
She said the Department for Education had already issued 122 warning notices to underperforming academies and free schools and changed the sponsor in 118 cases.
Academies which are underachieving will be "required to demonstrate they can improve significantly, or face the possibility of being moved to another sponsor".
Where Ofsted rates an academy as "inadequate", the school can face "instant intervention", which could mean being rapidly taken over by another sponsor.
