Many schools across America must take the budget bull by the horns and decide whether cutting class size is the right way to do it. In this blog post, Michael Hansen suggests how creating larger classes with smart teacher-assignment policies, may make students better off while simultaneously reducing costs. ...
Mounting evidence shows that social and emotional learning skills may be more predictive than test scores of student success in English language arts and math. In this blog post, Deborah Moroney and Michael McGarrah discuss how states and districts can build systems to support and properly assess these social and ...
Competency-based education (CBE) sets the bar high for all students—but offers personalized support and allows each student to move at his or her own pace. In this blog post, Wendy Surr, an author of AIR’s new study examining CBE policies and practices for ninth graders in 18 high schools in ...
The AIR Equity Initiative is investing its time, expertise, and financial resources into reimagining policing and public safety in the United States. In this blog post, Senior Program Officer Shakira Munden describes our how these AIR-funded grants will help shape a new vision of justice.
Federal and local governments continue to invest billions of dollars each year in professional development for teachers. Until recently, there has been little rigorous evidence to inform the design and delivery of these programs. This brief outlines the key findings from three random assignment PD evaluation studies and proposes areas ...
Having a more effective teacher or principal can substantially improve students’ academic outcomes. This brief examines the effects of using research-based performance measures to evaluate educators and provide them with feedback, and of offering them bonuses based on their performance ratings.
Getting a job is about more than academic performance. In this blog post, Kimberly Kendziora discusses the growing body of research on the importance of social and emotional skills, such as self-management, social awareness, and relationship skills.
In this second blog post in a series examining educational challenges facing youth in foster care, from early childhood into college, Trish Campie offers some promising solutions to creating pathways to college and career success.
Competency-based education is an educational approach that focuses on mastery of an expanded set of competencies—rather than seat time—as a measure of student learning. This brief explores how states and districts can define learner competencies that reflect the full range of knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for students to achieve ...
State agencies rely on Juvenile Justice Specialists and Compliance Monitors to make sure award recipients spend funds properly and facilities meet certain requirements of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, respectively.