AIR recently analyzed 45 teacher evaluation rubrics to see if they aligned with the messages teachers are receiving about improving instruction to support students in achieving higher and deeper standards. Spoiler-alert: as many teachers likely already know—they don’t align and they are often too generic to provide useful guidance for ...
Systemic challenges in the educator workforce require thoughtful and bold actions, and ESSA presents a unique opportunity for states to reaffirm, modify, or improve their vision of educator effectiveness. This discussion guide focuses on one challenge that states face as part of this work: defining ineffective teacher in the absence ...
As a result of the Syrian conflict, Lebanon has one of the highest per capita ratios of registered refugees in the world. Despite efforts by the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education and its partners, approximately half the Syrian children of primary school age in Lebanon did not attend ...
Over the last decade, educators have become increasingly interested in continuous improvement (CI) as a strategy for reform. For this literature review, AIR set out to locate empirical studies that described the process of implementing CI, as well as studies that analyzed the conditions that foster or limit its use. ...
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.
Many schools across America must take the budget bull by the horns and decide whether cutting class size is the right way to do it. In this blog post, Michael Hansen suggests how creating larger classes with smart teacher-assignment policies, may make students better off while simultaneously reducing costs. ...
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction contracted with AIR to provide a comprehensive evaluation of its Culturally Responsive Education for All: Training and Enhancement (CREATE) initiative during its first three years of implementation. AIR employed a qualitative case study design to assess program implementation and to determine the effect participation in ...
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 ...
Thriving- and equity-related goals offer hope for improving the world, yet they remain challenging to achieve. This paper proposes a fresh approach to achieving goals related to thriving and equity that include embracing new ideas for research and practical applications.
The federal regulations on teacher preparation, scheduled to be released next month, ask for a lot of new data about how well graduates perform in schools. But for students in those schools that might be too late. What's missing is a measure that can signal weakness or problems before candidates ...