Areas of Expertise
Capacity Building and Institutional Strengthening in Developing Countries
Capacity building and institutional strengthening are integral parts of the technical support AIR provides to developing countries through education systems reform efforts. AIR's systems-level support involves concerned officials within the specific department of the Ministries of Education and trains the appropriate staff to carry out their responsibilities effectively. Examples of areas in which Ministries and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) request support and capacity building include:
- financial management and accounting;
- strategic planning and long-term planning;
- policy dialogue and the transition to implementation;
- teacher professional development; and
- strategies for inclusion of marginal populations in education.
Recent Reports
- RISE Final Program Report - July 2006 to August 2010
- School Management Committees/Parent-Teacher Councils
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Recent Projects
- Egypt’s Education Reform Program
- Mejorando el Impacto al Desempeño Estudiantil de Honduras (MIDEH-Honduras)
- Zambia’s Community Health and Nutrition, Gender and Education Support 2 Program (CHANGES2)
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Recent Products
Child Labor Prevention
Child labor is a complex problem rooted in the extreme poverty of many developing countries. Prevention of child labor lies in the ability to create an environment that protects children from being exploited. Through its work, AIR adopts a two-pronged approach: 1) focusing on key strategies at the policy level; and 2) focusing on grassroots strategies to mobilize communities against child labor. Reintegration of child workers into their homes and schools has proven crucial to breaking the cycle of child labor. AIR has worked to achieve this goal by focusing on issues such as psychosocial support for child workers, family reunification, community development and training, teacher sensitization, conducive school-fee and school-readmission policies, and vocational training.
Recent Projects
Child Welfare
The child welfare system provides services designed to promote the well-being of children by ensuring safety, achieving permanency, and strengthening families to successfully care for their children. AIR provides training and technical assistance to promote cross-system collaboration and improve the safety, permanency, and well-being of children, youth, and families involved in the child welfare system. AIR also conducts research on national trends in the child welfare system and develops publications that support and empower families in navigating the complex child welfare system.
Recent Reports
- Supporting Children and Families After Traumatic Events
- Benefits of Systems of Care for Child Welfare
- Evaluation of Policies, Procedures, and Practices Affecting the Education of Children Residing in Group Homes
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Recent Projects
- Healing Hearts, Promoting Health
- Physical and Emotional Awareness for Children Who Are Homeless (PEACH)
- Partners United for Supportive Housing Cedar Rapids
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Recent Products
Chronic Disease Management
AIR believes information is the most potent weapon in chronic disease management, since chronic diseases cannot be prevented by vaccines or medicine, and do not simply disappear with time. Behaviors that damage one’s health – such as tobacco use, lack of physical activity, and poor eating habits - are major contributors to leading chronic diseases. Using tools like surveys to assess patient attitudes, databases where providers and consumers can search for the latest answers, and informatic models that provide quick and accurate calculations to answer clinical questions, AIR is working to help manage chronic diseases by controlling tobacco use, substance abuse, diabetes, and HIV/AIDS.
Recent Projects
Classroom Instruction
Understanding and improving classroom instruction is a central component of many of AIR’s evaluation and technical assistance projects. AIR designs high- and low-inference classroom observation tools and, using highly trained observers, conducts observations in a variety of classroom settings. Data on classroom instruction are integrated into recommendations for improving schools and classrooms.
Recent Reports
- Study of Teacher Preparation in Early Reading Instruction
- Expectations and Reports of Homework for Public School Students in the First, Third, and Fifth Grades
- Impact of Two Professional Development Interventions on Early Reading Instruction and Achievement Report
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Recent Projects
- Wisconsin Reading Excellence and Demonstration of Success Initiative (READS)
- Indiana Diagnostic Assessments Study
- Ohio Healthy Schools Profile System
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Recent Products
Commitments to the Clinton Global Initiative
Building on President Clinton’s lifetime in public service, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) reflects his belief that governments need collaboration from the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and other global leaders to effectively confront the world’s most pressing problems.
In 2005, President Clinton established CGI to turn ideas into action and to help our world move beyond the current state of globalization to a more integrated global community of shared benefits, responsibilities, and values. By gathering world leaders from a variety of backgrounds, CGI creates a unique opportunity to channel the capacities of individuals and organizations to realize change. To fulfill the action-oriented mission of CGI, all members devise practical solutions to global issues through the development of specific and measurable Commitments to Action.
AIR has been a member of the Clinton Global Initiative since 2008.
Recent Projects
- Commitment for Quality Education for More Children in Haiti
- Support to the Secretariat of Deworm the World
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Recent Products
Common Core Data
The Common Core of Data (CCD) is an annual collection of public elementary and secondary education data administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and its collection agent, the U.S. Census Bureau. The surveys of the CCD system include data, such as enrollment, grades levels, minority population, and poverty level, from all public schools and local education agencies. AIR provides professional and technical services for all aspects of data file preparation, file review, data analysis, preparation of data file documentation, and writing of substantive reports.
Recent Reports
- Learning from the Past: Drawing on California’s CLAS Experience to Inform Assessment of the Common Core
- Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 2008–09 (Fiscal Year 2009)
- Public School Graduates and Dropouts from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2008–09
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Recent Projects
Conditions for Learning
Successful schools must create and maintain effective conditions for learning. Such conditions have historically been regarded as including high-quality pedagogy, well-trained teachers, adequate resources, and effective leadership. AIR has proposed that educators also examine the social and emotional conditions for learning—the factors that ensure students feel safe and supported in school. AIR conducts research and evaluation, designs and analyzes surveys, synthesizes information, develops tools to improve, and provides consultation and technical assistance regarding student and teacher perceptions of safety, support, and connectedness; academic challenge and engagement; and individual and peer social emotional learning. AIR’s work is both national and international and includes consultation with districts, states, federal officials, and Ministries of Education regarding how to monitor and improve conditions for learning and teaching.
Recent Reports
- Wisconsin Culturally Responsive Education for All (CREATE) Initiative - Training and Enhancement Initiative
- Texas Principal Excellence Program (TxPEP)
- Student Connection Research: Final Narrative Report to the Spencer Foundation
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Recent Projects
Conference Planning/Management
AIR has supported more than 100 meetings and conferences annually for more than 23 years. Our conference staff are skilled in planning and managing many types of meetings with a variety of purposes. We have proven expertise in all aspects of workshop, meeting, and conference management including: program planning and management, registration services with online registration and meeting Web sites, exhibit services, logistics support, meeting material preparation, technical writing in support of meetings and conferences, onsite management, and post-conference support. Please contact Ezra Bourne for more information.
Content and Performance Standards in Developing Countries
In a number of projects across the developing world, AIR has contributed, in collaboration with Ministries of Education, to the definition of three types of educational standards.
- Learning standards are designed to inform stakeholders in education of specific grade-by-grade learning objectives in a particular subject area.
- Professional standards facilitate the development of a licensing system to ensure that teachers are appropriately trained, to guide trainers in determining the content of pre-service and in-service training programs, and to provide a means by which other practitioners in education can be held accountable.
- School standards allow schools to offer the appropriate range of services to students, teachers, and parents to ensure that effective learning takes place; such standards can be used as the basis for the design of an accreditation system.
Recent Reports
- Comparing Mathematics Content in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003 Assessments
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Recent Projects
- Mejorando el Impacto al Desempeño Estudiantil de Honduras (MIDEH-Honduras)
- EQUIP2: Namibia Basic Education Support (BES III) Technical Support to DNEA
- Programme Haitien d’Appui à la Réforme de l’Education (PHARE) – ABE/LINK
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Recent Products
Content Knowledge Strengthening in International Schools
AIR believes that effective teacher professional training includes both strengthening teacher content knowledge in subject matter and improving teachers’ instructional methodologies. Using a country’s curriculum, which maps out the concepts and skills prescribed to achieve the country’s educational goals and objectives, AIR works with teachers to help them achieve mastery of the content knowledge so they can better deliver the concepts within their subject area.
Recent Projects
- TELL (Teach English for Life Learning) Program in Ethiopia
- Pakistan’s Revitalizing, Innovating, Strengthening Education (RISE)
- Malawi Teacher Training Activity (MTTA)
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Recent Products
Cultural Competency
The ability to understand, communicate with, and interact effectively with people from different cultures is an especially important skill to possess in a 21st century global economy. AIR conducts research and evaluation, synthesizes information, develops tools to improve, and provides consultation and technical assistance to increase cultural and linguistic competence in education, mental health, juvenile justice, child welfare, and youth development. AIR’s approaches involve individual and organizational assessment and capacity development, disparity reduction, and the collection and analysis of data.
Recent Reports
Curriculum and Instructional Systems Design in Developing Countries
AIR helps developing countries’ Ministries of Education design curricula that reflect the educational goals and objectives of each country for its citizens, usually by content focus and grade level. AIR works with stakeholders to identify their needs, design a program to develop instructional materials, provide different models and technical support, and involve the users in the development process.
Recent Projects
