Areas of Expertise
High School Improvement
AIR provides technical assistance and designs, analyzes, synthesizes, and distributes research and information about promising and proven practices that inform the national debate about policies and strategies for high school improvement. Our expertise and work leading the National High School Center for the U.S. Department of Education, and the Early College High School Readiness project for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, are examples of our contributions to the field.
Recent Reports
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Turnaround Schools in California: Who Are They and What Strategies Do They Use?
This November 2011 study, written by experts with AIR for the California Comprehensive Center at WestEd, attempts to define turnaround schools in California, both what constitutes low-performing or failing schools and what constitutes turnaround or success for these schools.
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Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 1972–2008
This report builds upon a series of National Center for Education Statistics reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988.
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What Matters for Staying On-Track and Graduating in Chicago Public Schools: A Focus on Students with Disabilities
This report found that absences, course failures, course credits and GPA all can be used to accurately predict whether ninth-graders with disabilities will graduate from high school. Identifying these early warning indicators is especially crucial for students with disabilities, who drop out of high school at alarming rates.
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The National High School Center
Millions of high school students—particularly those with disabilities, with limited proficiency in English, or from low-income backgrounds—need additional support in order to succeed. To address this challenge, the National High School Center promotes the use of research-supported approaches that help all students learn and become adequately prepared for college, work, and life.
