American Institutes for Research

Kimberly Kendziora is a managing researcher at AIR with experience and expertise in evaluating school-based student support initiatives. Her recent work has focused on evaluations of school- and community-based initiatives to promote social and emotional learning and support students who are not succeeding. She has directed or served as principal investigator on evaluations of: an eight-district demonstration project to establish social and emotional learning as an essential part of education; a districtwide college readiness and scholarship initiative; a school-based mental health initiative in the Bronx, NY; the Alaska Initiative for Community Engagement with schools; and the Iowa Learning Supports initiative. Taken together, these projects advance understanding of how schools can productively interact with communities to support all children’s academic, social and emotional development.

Dr. Kendziora has also been deeply involved in the measurement of conditions for learning in schools. She directed the development of the Chicago Public Schools’ Student Connection survey and toolkit and has consulted with New York City and the District of Columbia on their stakeholder surveys. She developed a comprehensive student monitoring system for Say Yes to Education, which combines teacher and student input with educational records to determine whether students are “on track to thrive,” “on track to graduate,” or “off track” for 13 indicators across academic, social and health domains.

In the areas of prevention and early intervention, Dr. Kendziora led a study of long-term academic outcomes for children who received preschool intervention for behavioral or developmental concerns. Dr. Kendziora has served as a co-principal investigator on two grants from the National Institutes of Health related to developing and testing a preventive intervention in first grade classrooms that combined behavior management, family involvement and instructional coaching for teachers.

Dr. Kendziora has a background in mental health and maintains a research interest in services for children with complex, multi-system needs. She has authored and co-authored monographs describing promising practices in community-based service delivery for children with serious emotional disturbance, and has supported technical assistance to communities building local systems of care.