A December 2015 AIR study finds that Transitional Kindergarten, the first year of a two-year kindergarten program for young five-year-olds in California, appears to improve children’s school readiness in critical areas of academic learning and development. Researchers Karen Manship and Heather Quick explain how and suggest next steps. ...
California students who had attended Transitional Kindergarten were more advanced than their peers in language, literacy, mathematics and executive function, early results of a study by AIR show. The differences amount to as much as a five-month head start in kindergarten. Transitional Kindergarten grew out of California’s Kindergarten Readiness Act, ...
With careers for millennials stalling on the launch pad, does the push for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) really make sense? In this blog post, AIR Institute Fellow Mark Schneider explains that new data suggest that the nation may not need more bachelor’s graduates in the most popular science ...
In June 2013, AIR completed an initial evaluation of the patterns of resource allocation and the attitudes and perspectives of various stakeholders about the implementation of Hawaii's weighted student formula (WSF). The findings of this evaluation show that implementation of Hawaii's WSF appears to have gained widespread acceptance among ...
AIR's Substance Abuse Youth topic page on Youth.gov provides information and resources for youth-serving agencies. The new topic provides information and resources focused on substance abuse prevalence, risk and protective factors, warning signs, screening assessments, and prevention and treatment.
Since 2004, San Francisco expanded preschool access for children in San Francisco County, regardless of family income through its Preschool for All (PFA) initiative. In December 2005, AIR began a joint process evaluation to assess the implementation of PFA in San Francisco and San Mateo Counties. The process evaluation was ...
This spotlight takes a look at the history of Title I, how the program has changed over time, and how it affects children, schools, families and education policy. Experts weigh in on the program's past and future in interviews, briefs, and blogs.
California youth in foster care have lower performance in math and English language arts, experience more frequent changes in where they attend school, drop out of high school in greater numbers, and graduate at significantly lower rates. AIR was a key partner in Education Equals Partnership, a statewide initiative established ...
States have prioritized documenting and improving the quality of early childhood education programs by developing quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs). This report describes the quality improvement efforts of early childhood education programs participating in Iowa’s voluntary quality rating and improvement system, the Iowa Quality Rating System (QRS). The findings ...
AIR evaluations of two federally funded initiatives aimed at revamping chronically low-performing schools in Massachusetts found that students in both programs improved their scores in state tests of English language arts and mathematics. While both programs resulted in widespread improvement, AIR’s evaluations found particularly strong increases in achievement among students ...