Developing reliable and valid national-level survey measures of instructional processes and other classroom conditions related to learning has proven exceptionally difficult. This report focuses on the size of the impact that can be expected from instruction and teachers on student achievement and on the conceptualization of measures of instruction and ...
New educator evaluation systems require measures of teacher effectiveness that are timely and meaningful, and many new systems specifically require measures of student growth. Student learning objectives (SLOs) are emerging as innovative measures of student growth because of their versatility and potential for promoting good teaching practices. This fact sheet ...
When teachers learn, students learn. For decades, AIR has conducted studies of teacher professional learning and helped practitioners use evidence to develop, implement, test, and scale professional learning programs.
The effort to link statistically student achievement to measures of teaching or teachers has proven very difficult. Analysts generally agree that the impacts of effective teachers on student achievement are important. The problem for analysts has been in identifying the characteristics of high quality teaching or teachers. ...
For years, the job of drawing high quality teachers to struggling schools has relied mostly on incentives: money, prestige or better professional development. In this blog post, Kelly Hallberg and Glenance Green describe another option: teacher residency programs, which provide a reliable pipeline of high-quality teachers committed to hard-to-staff schools ...
It is well documented that teacher quality is the most important school-based factor associated with improving student achievement. Researchers found that the school context in which student teaching occurs has important implications for the later outcomes of teachers and their students.
Effective school leaders may be the linchpin of a successful school system. Research has identified school leadership quality as second only to teacher quality in its influence on student achievement.
In an effort to develop a balanced and valid system, states and districts increasingly have moved toward using multiple measures in educator evaluation. This document provides guidance regarding the use of student surveys, including benefits and limitations of their use, summaries of vendor-developed student surveys and how they have been ...
Instructional coaching can promote more effective and engaging learning in the classroom. In this video, Kirk Walters, AIR principal researcher and instructional math coach, shows how to support teachers and help students learn critical math skills-and why it’s important to teach students not only how to do mathematical procedures but ...
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.