Toni M. Smith is a managing researcher at AIR where she directs research and development projects focused on mathematics instruction and teacher professional learning.
Dr. Smith currently directs the development and experimental testing of a virtual coaching program designed to improve the alignment of teachers’ instruction to state standards funded by ...
Pay for Success models bring together investors with local, state, and federal government agencies to fund and improve education, health, and social services. For the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Justice, AIR is testing a PFS model in Maryland to support people experiencing ...
AIR offers a broad range of services in areas that support our human rights and refugee initiatives. We are committed to applying and producing the best evidence and the highest quality work. Our quality assurance process encompasses all stages of a project, from research design to evidence-based conclusions and recommendations, ...
Carmen Martínez is a researcher with 18 years of experience in a range of national, state, and local research and evaluation projects in the domains of of early education and intervention, programs for at-risk and culturally diverse students, closing the achievement gap for low-income and minority students; and policies and ...
The Oklahoma Rural Schools Research Alliance sought to investigate three research topics: effective professional development strategies in rural schools, use of data to inform instruction in rural schools, and challenges American Indian students face in rural schools. This research focus will be applied to identify and address the factors that ...
Andrew Wayne is a managing researcher at AIR. He develops, supervises, and leads work designed to improve K-12 education.
Dr. Wayne’s main line of work focuses on K-12 teacher professional learning. Over the last two decades, he conducted groundbreaking studies of professional learning programs and their impact on teacher and student ...
Jessica Heppen, a nationally recognized expert in education research, policy, and practice, is the president & CEO of AIR. Dr. Heppen been with AIR for 20 years and, in that time, has held several key roles during her tenure.
Biological drugs, or biologics, are innovative therapies for people with debilitating and life-threatening diseases; but these drugs are expensive. In this Q&A, AIR’s Thiyagu Rajakannan, senior researcher and lead for Drug Coverage and Payment Practice in the Health Division at AIR, explains how lower-cost versions of these drugs and promising ...
When approached by a federal agency looking to improve service delivery experiences and outcomes for customers with disabilities, we discovered that while staff on the frontlines understood what the law required of them, they often struggled to put policy into practice when providing customer service. We provided assistance applying key ...
Jill Walston is a principal researcher at the American Institutes for Research. Dr. Walston leads quantitative research and technical assistance projects mainly for the Midwest and the Southwest Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) programs, sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). Dr. Walston serves as the project director for AIR’s ...