Many schools hoping to infuse practices with research have encountered challenges, and Battle Creek Public Schools’ experience implementing literary instruction grounded in research is no different. These challenges can serve as lessons for other education leaders, as AIR expert Kerstin Le Floch describes in this In the Field piece. ...
In April 2010, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education adopted regulations to formalize the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s approach to engaging with all schools to improve student performance. AIR conducted a mixed-methods evaluation of how some of the lowest-performing schools use School Redesign Grants (SRGs) ...
Implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) presented policymakers and stakeholders with opportunities to improve outcomes for schools and students as well as teachers and leaders. AIR worked with districts and states to help them navigate the most current information, key topics, and research-based resources for planning and implementing ESSA ...
Knowing that the current context is dramatically different than previous school years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that students’ access to learning from home varies, how should schools grade student performance? This brief from the California Collaborative on District Reform explores some of the policy options California districts and ...
The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) represents a fundamental transformation of the way California allocates state funds to school districts and the ways the state expects districts to make decisions about (and report on) the use of these funds. This brief identifies some early lessons about how best to use ...
The death of George Floyd, along with racial inequities exacerbated by the global coronavirus pandemic, pushed racial justice issues to the forefront of our conversations in 2020. Sarah Caverly and David Osher discuss the effects on education, using the Austin Independent School District as an example of how a school ...
Susan Therriault is an education researcher whose work straddles equity, K-12 school improvement, and policy. In this Q&A, she describes her career and her work with the COVID-19 Equity in Education project.
Comprehensive school reform (CSR) is only as effective as its implementation. By using data collected for the National Longitudinal Evaluation of Comprehensive School Reform, this study explores how CSR model implementation varies as well as what factors predict CSR model implementation.
AIR and Turnaround for Children have authored two white papers to support districts who are applying for the Race to the Top – District (RTTD) competition. The two white papers provide guidelines for establishing foundational conditions as outlined by RTTD and for using a specific set of metrics to measure ...
Researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and funders are increasingly aware of the powerful potential for summertime experiences and the need to design, implement, and continuously improve summertime experiences for all.