American Institutes for Research

Drew Atchison is a senior researcher at AIR. His primary responsibilities include quantitative analysis on a wide range of projects examining topics such as accountability, education finance, and educational equity. Dr. Atchison has led the quantitative analysis for several reports commissioned by the Department of Education including the Study of Title I Schoolwide and Targeted Assistance Programs, Exploring the Quality of School-Level Expenditure Data: Practices and Lessons Learned in Nine States, and Districts’ Use of Weighted Student Funding Systems. In his time at AIR, Dr. Atchison has helped conduct a number of studies related to school finance, including an adequacy study in California and a study of the pupil weights used in Vermont’s system of school funding.

For his dissertation research examining how accountability policies have impacted educational equity of inputs as well as outcomes, Atchison was awarded the Jean Flanigan Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Association of Education Finance and Policy. Dr. Atchison has published articles in top education research journals, including the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Education Finance and Policy, and Education Policy Analysis Archives. Previously, he was a research assistant at George Washington University and a consultant for Digital Promise.