The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has an ongoing commitment to improve support provided to all schools, with an emphasis on the lowest performing schools. This report summarizes findings from AIR’s qualitative analyses of turnaround practices that appear challenging for low-performing high schools, as well as promising practices ...
What makes a school a place where Alaskan students want to be and want to do well? Why do students stay in school or drop out? And what do Alaskan students believe that schools can do to help them succeed? Researchers at AIR present the answers, provided directly by students, to these questions.
A recent special issue in the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence highlights findings from three decades of research on the Good Behavior Game and its impact on a variety of long term behavioral and mental health outcomes.
AIR conducted this research review on college and career readiness indicators for partners at the Boston Opportunity Agenda. The indicators are based on students’ experiences during their years in high school.
This is the fifth annual synthesis report for the Early College High School Initiative. A brief overview shows that although the ECHSI continued to grow in terms of the number of schools participating, the growth was slower than in prior years. It also is clear that fewer ECSs are opening ...
Young adults in the United States today face the challenges of achieving financial and social independence—while forming their own households—at a time of economic uncertainty. The Special Issue on America's Young Adults offers policymakers and the public a better understanding of these young adults in order to support them more ...
An AIR report finds that Pennsylvania’s system for financing public schools severely underfunds many of the state’s highest need urban and rural public school districts. The report found that the average levels of both school spending and student achievement in Pennsylvania are above the national average, but fail to meet ...
It’s been 40 years since performance standards were substantially revised for Head Start. The newly Revised Head Start Rules were approved and released last September. They include four major changes: increased duration, expanded access, special supports for vulnerable populations, and improved supports for teachers. In this blog post, Eboni Howard ...
Competency-based education makes student mastery of learning goals—rather than seat time—the metric to determine student credit and progression. Take a closer look at how schools implement competency-based education, and how it is related to what students need to learn effectively.
Parents, teachers, schools, districts, states, and especially students all want schools that prepare graduates to thrive in the 21st century. In this blog post, Anne Mishkind asks what it means to be "college and career ready."