Disparities persist in educational achievement for students of color and low-income students. In this video interview, Darren Woodruff, principal researcher at AIR, explains how schools can create a climate to help reduce the achievement gap and help all students learn.
Mary Kay Dugan is a managing technical assistant consultant at AIR. She is passionate about identifying evidence-based promising practices and translating them into policies and effective programs focused on underserved populations including disadvantaged youth and young adults. Dugan has over 30 years of experience helping federal, state, and local governments ...
Daniel Frederking is a senior technical assistance consultant at AIR. His work centers around district and school improvement practices including needs assessments, strategic planning, and progress monitoring. He has served in this capacity as a consultant to school districts, higher education institutions, and state departments across the country. He also ...
What impact do Teach for America (TFA) members have on other teachers' performance? A strategy to "cluster" TFA members in high-need schools contributed to large gains in math achievement, but was found to have little effect on reading skills and no spillover effect on other teachers.
AIR researchers and collaborators are evaluating a holistic menstrual health and hygiene behavior change program in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, to inform improvements, adaptations, and scale-up of the program, and support evidence dissemination and uptake to improve the quality of life for girls, women, and other menstruating individuals. ...
Over the last decade, educators have become increasingly interested in continuous improvement (CI) as a strategy for reform. For this literature review, AIR set out to locate empirical studies that described the process of implementing CI, as well as studies that analyzed the conditions that foster or limit its use. ...
The Digital Agricultural Advisory Services (DAAS) project in Ethiopia, also known as the Farmstack project, is a five-year initiative supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office that provides farmers with relevant agricultural extension via digital channels while strengthening extension systems in-country. ...
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.
Despite the increasing demand for food in both developed and developing counties, smallholder farmers are not able to integrate to local markets because of low capital, limited access to credit, and risk aversion. AIR is evaluating the 2SCALE agribusiness project, which was designed to help rural smallholders move from subsistence ...
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included $4.35 billion for Race to the Top (RTT), one of the Obama administration’s signature programs and one of the largest federal government investments in an education grant program. This final report examines how receipt of RTT grants was related to student ...