AIR conducted a review of key literature in 2011-12 exploring the measurement of teacher practice and student learning in arts-integrated settings through a project funded by the Department of Education and offered by the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts.
How can classroom teachers maximize the learning potential of their adult basic education (ABE) students while, at the same time, attending to differences among them? Instead of expecting learners to adjust to the lessons they plan, teachers need to plan their lessons to adjust to the learners at hand. - ...
Not all student growth measures are alike, nor are they designed to be. But when student growth measures are used for educator evaluation, fairness and comparability become critical. This paper focuses on the benefits and challenges of student learning objectives (SLOs) and their use in educator effectiveness systems. To support ...
While teachers have mixed opinions—both positive and negative—of research, they tend to seek out research when they have an immediate, pressing concern. This paper explores the demand side of the market for educational research, particularly the types of educational research that teachers find useful for advancing their instructional practice and ...
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.
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. ...
The educational community is increasingly focused on the development of students’ social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies and the link between SEL and improved educational attainment and achievement. This self-assessment tool is designed to help educators reflect upon (1) their current teaching practices that impact student SEL, and (2) their ...
This paper addresses the teachers’ use of educational research to improve their instructional practice. Based on two qualitative, exploratory studies AIR conducted in the Chicago metropolitan area between 2008 and 2011, researchers found that teachers do appreciate and use research when there is a pressing need. ...
The initiatives to enhance adult learning program accountability and assessment systems of the following states are described in this paper: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Oregon, Texas, Washington, West Virginia.
A strategy to “cluster” Teach for America corps members in some of Miami’s highest-need schools contributed to large gains in student math achievement, but had little impact on reading skills, a new study by AIR finds. Researchers also looked at the influence—or spillover effect—of TFA’s instructors on fellow teachers and ...