Beatrice Birman

Institute Fellow

Beatrice Birman is an AIR Institute Fellow with three decades of experience evaluating education programs. Her areas of expertise include federal education policy, programs for students placed at risk, school reform, and teachers' professional development. She has conducted national evaluations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), Title I, and the Eisenhower Professional Development Program (for mathematics and science teachers); has studied district and school reform efforts aimed at reducing gaps in student outcomes; and has evaluated numerous policy initiatives including those promoting charter schools, early childhood programs, and the uses of educational technologies. Dr. Birman recently served on a National Research Council committee to evaluate public schools in the District of Columbia, and currently represents AIR on the new DC Education Consortium for Research and Evaluation (DCEdCORE) She also is co-principal investigator of an Institute of Education Sciences study of school turnaround efforts funded through the ESEA School Improvement Grants.

Prior to joining AIR, Dr. Birman was assistant director of education and employment issues for the U.S. Government Accountability Office. She also held a number of positions in the U.S. Department of Education, conducting policy analyses, directing program evaluations, and directing research grants programs for the education of children with disabilities. She recently taught program evaluation at George Washington University and, earlier in her career, taught research methods at Stanford University.

Expertise
Education

Ph.D., Sociology of Education, M.A., Sociology, and M.A. Counseling Psychology, Stanford University; A.B., Sociology, Barnard College

Contact Beatrice Birman

+1.202.403.5000
Related Work
Teachers talking in the hallway

Spotlight on Teacher Professional Learning

06 Oct 2023
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.

Case Studies of Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants: Final Report

14 Apr 2016
With the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program underwent three major shifts; by increasing the level of funding, better targeting these funds to the persistently lowest-achieving schools, and requiring that schools adopt specific intervention models, the revamped SIG program ...

Case Studies of Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants: First Year Findings

22 Mar 2016
Our nation’s lowest performing schools have traditionally struggled to offer students the instruction and supports they deeply need. The first phase of the federal School Improvement Grant Program targeted the goal of turning around these schools and improving learning for students. This report examines the first year of SIG implementation ...

Using Research to Improve Practice: Which Research Makes a Difference?

17 Feb 2016
empty desks in a classroom

Three Decades of Education Reform: Are We Still "A Nation at Risk?"

30 Oct 2013
In 1983, A Nation at Risk laid bare the state of American education and exposed what that meant for individuals and the country. Here, seven education experts from AIR weigh in on whether the report made a difference and where education is today.

Designing Effective Professional Development: Lessons from the Eisenhower Program

16 Oct 1999
This report, based on a national evaluation of the Eisenhower program, provides information about how the program is operating and how it might be strengthened. A second objective of this report is to contribute to knowledge about teacher professional development. The Eisenhower program is a source of funding for professional ...