Jennifer Pirtle is a principal technical assistance consultant at AIR with 25 years of experience in the workforce and economic development field. She serves as project director for several projects in AIR’s Workforce Development Program and Policy Division, including the U.S. Department of Labor’s Real-Time State and Regional TA project, ...
Kwelin Waller is senior program manager with the AIR Equity Initiative. Waller works to combine research and technical assistance with real-world applications, leading the Equity Initiative's work in the interconnected areas of workforce development, community health and well-being. Additionally, she leads the AIR Scholars and Leaders Award grant competition, an initiative that ...
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 ...
Dr. Markus Broer is a managing researcher at AIR, where he is currently serving as the project director of the Research, Analysis and Psychometric Support component of a larger project (ESSIN Task 14). ESSIN Task 14 supports the National Center for Education Statistics with expert advice and technical assistance on ...
The recent release of the 2015 NAEP results by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics have been labeled “historic” by some because math scores at both Grades 4 and 8 and reading at Grade 8 have all declined, the first decline since NAEP's framework was put ...
Amy Young is a principal TA consultant at AIR with over 20 years of experience in public policy, program management, and technical assistance in the workforce development field. She is an accomplished director with extensive experience designing and leading high-profile projects, complex technical assistance initiatives, and large-scale grants and contracts. ...
Martin Hooper is a principal researcher at AIR. Since joining AIR in October 2018, Dr. Hooper has been involved in researching NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) and international large-scale assessment methodologies with a special focus on context questionnaires and trend analysis. Dr. Hooper also supports the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the management of ...
Paula Dias is a qualitative senior researcher at AIR with over 10 years of research experience in the development sector. She has extensive experience in qualitative methods, including ethnography and participatory methods. At AIR, she leads and contributes to a variety of mixed-methods evaluations on the topics of social protection, ...
Amy Dalsimer is a principal technical assistance consultant with the Adult Education and Literacy Practice Group at AIR. Her work is focused on improving services and instruction to adult learners by conducting research and providing professional development to states and local providers, strengthening accountability and use of data for program ...
Jessica Heppen, a nationally recognized expert in education research, policy, and practice, is the president & CEO of AIR. Dr. Heppen been with AIR for 20 years and, in that time, has held several key roles during her tenure.