AIR’s state and local evaluation projects marshal a broad range of expertise and resources to support state education agencies and district offices as they decide whether to retain, revise, or end a policy or program. The projects address challenges in district and school reform, educator quality, special education, school financing, ...
This long, hot summer could use some good news. And we have it. Teen pregnancy, alcohol and tobacco use by students, children’s exposure to second-hand smoke, motor vehicle-related child deaths, and the rate at which young people are victimized by serious crimes have reached 20-year lows. In this blog post, ...
Getting a job is about more than academic performance. In this blog post, Kimberly Kendziora discusses the growing body of research on the importance of social and emotional skills, such as self-management, social awareness, and relationship skills.
According to an AIR analysis of data from U.S. Department of Education’s early childhood longitudinal studies, America’s public school kindergarten has become dramatically more academic. In this blog post, Jill Walston and Kristin Flanagan describe the data and ask how this affects children who don't have the opportunity to attend ...
January 2014 ushered in a new and harder General Education Development test, or GED. This is the test that adults without a diploma take to show that they possess high-school level skills. Passing the test should mean more now to employers and admissions officers for community colleges and training programs. ...
Dr. Deborah Moroney specializes in bridging research and practice, having worked as a staff member for out-of-school programs early in her career. She’s written practitioner and organizational guides; co-authored the fourth edition of “Beyond the Bell®, A Toolkit for Creating High-Quality Afterschool and Expanded Learning Programs,” a seminal afterschool resource; ...
The college admissions scandal that broke in March 2019 drew attention to the lengths that a few people go to cheat or pay their children’s way into these colleges, and to the way colleges make decisions about who gets accepted. Alexandria Walton Radford, a managing researcher at AIR and director ...
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.
Head Start, a leader for 50 years in preparing children from low income families for kindergarten and beyond, is about to undergo its first comprehensive overhaul since 1975. In this blog post, AIR's Yoni Farber talks about the importance of the change from intermittent workshops to intensive professional development for ...
In this blog post, Principal Researcher Lyzz Davis talks about the work of AIR's Evidence Support Center and its companion Evidence Library, to help educators navigate the path from evidence to practice by amplifying the work of the What Works Clearinghouse.