As the new year begins, we reflect on the efforts of our Professional Services Division to further AIR’s mission of conducting and applying the best behavioral and social science research, evaluation, and technical assistance towards improving people's lives, with a special emphasis on the disadvantaged. Here are just a few ...
This Connecting Research to Practice brief helps educators make informed decisions about English language learners (ELLs) by providing an overview of key research findings, highlighting federal policies related to ELLs, outlining district-level and school-level action opportunities, and listing resources that offer more information. ...
Quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs) constitute an ambitious policy approach to improving early care and education practices and child outcomes. A QRIS is a uniform set of ratings, graduated by level of quality, used to assess and improve early learning and care programs. The purpose of this study, conducted ...
The goal of the NSF-funded Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography Multicultural Program (ASLOMP) is to encourage interested under-represented minority undergraduate and graduate students to pursue a career in aquatic sciences, which includes oceanography, limnology, stream ecology, marine biology, fisheries, and other subfields. In 2011, AIR began an ...
Overall, performance of low-performing schools (both those participating and not participating in the HPSGP) is improving in an era in which state and federal accountability systems have been introduced.
Most education studies use a simple and convenient measure of poverty: the percentage of children eligible for free/reduced-price lunch. Although this measure provides the proportion of children coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, it does not capture all dimensions of poverty, such as neighborhood effects. ...
This fourth and final brief in the California Collaborative on District Reform series examines how the Fresno-Long Beach Learning Partnership uses data to inform work across and within the districts. The Partnership is a collaboration that aims to improve student outcomes, accelerate achievement for all students, and close achievement gaps ...
The initiatives to enhance adult learning program accountability and assessment systems of the following states are described in this paper: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Oregon, Texas, Washington, West Virginia.
State teacher evaluation policies have undergone sweeping changes since 2008, spurred forward heavily by federal competitive funding opportunities like Race to the Top and Investing in Innovation. All 49 states and the District of Columbia have changed legislation or regulations to improve the consistency and quality of teacher evaluation. After ...
Student achievement depends on an array of factors within and beyond the classroom environment. Even within classrooms, a complex interplay of factors affects achievement. These factors include not only the curriculum but also teaching practices. In this paper, we are interested in two associated pilot programs, consisting of professional development, ...