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.
States and school districts have made significant investments in systems to measure teacher performance, with the ultimate goal of improving student learning. In this report, AIR experts share their findings from the two-year Beyond Accountability project, in which four school districts identified a specific problem of practice and used plan-do-study-act ...
Given the importance of central office and school support staff to student learning and the school environment, this report provides examples of performance-based compensations systems that acknowledge the work of those who help to create healthy, safe, clean, and supportive learning environments for students. ...
In this podcast, Peter Cookson talks with Education Policy Center and Center on Great Teachers and Leaders Director Angela Minnici about the importance of providing all students with access to effective teachers and school leaders. The GTL Center is currently working closely with states to design and implement State Plans ...
In 2014, the Midwest Comprehensive Center facilitated the meetings of a task force focused on closing achievement gaps in Wisconsin. The center worked in partnership with the Department of Public Instruction to help task force members identify relevant strategies used within their schools and districts. The work culminated in this ...
Despite large investments and efforts, schools and districts have long struggled to provide ongoing, effective, and sustained support for teachers’ professional development. This study examined the experiences of teachers in six schools participating in one of three teacher network programs during the 2016–17 school year. ...
The main purpose of this descriptive report—based exclusively on self-reported data collected from responses to a survey administered to state educational service agency (ESA) leaders in five Great Lakes states—is to provide an overview of the structure, capacity, and roles of ESAs in the region, within the context of the ...
Student learning objectives (SLOs) have become the preferred measure of student growth in many new systems of teacher evaluation and compensation. This SLO practice brief aims to assist states and districts in the implementation of SLOs by providing practical steps for building a sustainable system of developing and measuring student ...
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.
The recent increased attention to teacher evaluation has raised questions about the relationship between evaluation and student outcomes. This research and policy brief lays out an informal framework for using evaluation results to target professional growth opportunities for teachers within an aligned system of evaluation, leading to higher levels of ...