Provides research, evaluation, consulting, and technical assistance services that contribute to the lifelong process of learning and improving personal performance.

Produces and disseminates information to provide motivation and tools to enable individuals to make informed decisions about health issues.

Develops and implements education testing programs that benefit students, parents and public officials.

Works with the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the government's primary source for collecting and analyzing data about public education.

Helps to provide all children with access to a quality education, and empowers people, organizations, and communities to bring about social change.

Is committed to helping clients improve the effectiveness of their workforce through a wide range of management, organizational, and business improvement efforts.

Produces, maintains and disseminates systematic reviews of the effects of social and behavioral interventions.

María Pérez

Senior Research Scientist

María Pérez, M.A., received her masters in economics from Pontificia Universidad Catolica of Chile. A Senior Research Scientist who has been with AIR for seven years, she co-directed the evaluation of the Effects of the Implementation of Proposition 227. The study there is no clear evidence to support the argument of superiority of one English language instructional approach over another. She also served as Project Director for two studies that are part of “Getting Down to Facts”, a research project of more than 20 studies designed to provide California’s policy makers and other education stakeholders with information to assist in raising student achievement and repositioning California as an education leader. This research was conducted at the request of the Governor's Committee on Educational Excellence, the California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, and members of the California Legislature.

In 2005, Ms. Pérez played a crucial role in high-level processing and analysis of complex data from national and state departments of education, school districts, and schools; recent work has focused extensively on the achievement and inclusion of English learners and students with special needs in standardized testing. Outside of her role on the Proposition 227 evaluation, she served as Director of Achievement Analysis for the California Department of Education contracted study Intermediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program (II/USP), as well as Co-Director for a NAEP state project Inclusion and Accommodations for Students with Disabilities and English Learners.

During 2001-2004, Ms. Pérez served as the Principal Analyst for the expenditure project Special Education Expenditure Project, a national study conducted for the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. The purpose of this study was to estimate the total national spending to educate special education students.

Currently, Ms. Pérez is pursuing a Ph.D. in Economics of Education at Stanford University.