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.
School improvement policy for the past few decades has been characterized by mandated lists of activities designed to stimulate a dramatic turnaround in student achievement. In the long run, this policy approach did not engender the necessary school-level changes. This brief demonstrates why new policies must aim to get the ...
This brief discusses scientifically based reading instruction in relation to federal policy mandates and focuses on strategies and standards for ensuring that teachers are qualified to teach reading.
Too many new principals say they are underprepared for critical leadership tasks which—combined with high job demands, poor support, and increased accountability—raises principal stress to a boiling point. In this blog post, Matthew Clifford describes 18 “high leverage” state-level policies that hold promise for increasing innovation and improving principal preparation. ...
Competency-based programs could reduce the barriers many face to getting a college degree, whether adult learners who struggle to balance an academic calendar with work and family, or workers who want to get the credentials verifying skills they’ve acquired on the job. AIR hosted a briefing on competency-based education, a ...
Principals are second only to classroom teachers when it comes to impact on student learning. The George W. Bush Institute and AIR collaborated on a two-year study that looks at effective ways to evaluate principal preparation and describe policies to get, support, and keep great principals.
English learners face disproportionate educational challenges because they must master subject-matter content while also developing English proficiency. The Study of Practices for English Learners is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences and examines key policies, practices, and activities related to ELs nationwide. ...
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) puts each state in the driver’s seat for making its own K-12 policy. In this blog post, Peter Cookson discusses what this means for educational equity.
Recent media attention has raised significant concerns about our public school system’s capability to staff all classrooms; yet remarkably little research details the nature of teacher shortages. This brief provides a roadmap for policy leaders to hold better informed dialogues on the nature of teacher shortages, and target interventions to ...
New U.S. Department of Education draft rules aim to hold teacher-training programs accountable for the quality of their graduates. In this blog post, Marianne Lemke discusses what's at stake.