Abstract
How do state laws shape charter schools?
Every state writes its own charter school law, and the laws differ a lot. Some cap the number of charter schools. Some let universities or state commissions approve new schools. Some require a school to close after several years of low test scores. This project builds a year-by-year record of every state’s charter law since 1991. We link it to national school data to ask which rules lead to stronger charter schools, fewer closures, and better results for nearby public schools.
As a summer research assistant, you will:
- read original state laws and record how specific rules changed over time
- check AI-assisted coding against the legal text
- help settle hard coding questions
- depending on your skills, work with large school datasets
You will learn how researchers turn legal text into data, how a research dataset is built and validated, and how economists test whether a policy caused an outcome. No legal background is needed; full training is provided.