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 officals.

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.

NAEP, the "Nation's Report Card"

Since 1969, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has tracked educational achievement in the United States. AIR has contributed to the program’s evolution from a low-key survey—of interest primarily to researchers—to becoming a major part of the accountability aspects of No Child Left Behind.

In the 1980s and throughout the 1990s, AIR was tasked with staffing the congressionally mandated evaluation of the State-NAEP program. This evaluation, which began in earnest in 1990, was conducted by the National Academy of Education. AIR’s role in NAEP has grown exponentially as the program itself expanded in its scale and policy importance. NAEP assesses a full schedule of subjects, and under NCLB it serves as the point of reference for state measures of educational proficiency.

AIR’s present role in NAEP is three-fold: as one of the prime contractors for NAEP, we are responsible for the main Item Development project; we carry out several efforts to improve NAEP’s methods and analyze its results; finally, we carry out a program for NCES to help states relate the NAEP program to their own test results—a crucial aspect of accountability under NCLB.

AIR’s involvement in NAEP has paid large dividends for its state and other clients. Because we are an integral part of national efforts to develop one of the leading assessment programs in the country, we are able to assist states and other clients in developing their own programs, as well as using and interpreting the NAEP program for accountability purposes.