AIR understands the critical importance of providing every child with a safe and supportive environment to learn and to thrive. Our approach to supporting schools, districts, states, federal agencies, youth-serving organizations, and foundations in their efforts to support youth focuses on AIR’s mission to use the best research and technical assistance to improve people's lives.

Passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) means significant changes for states, districts, and educational program developers. AIR is well-equipped to support states and districts that are implementing ESSA requirements, and program developers who want to ensure their services qualify for federal funding.

AIR researchers explore the indicators that signal students’ readiness to reach key educational milestones. By synthesizing the latest research on early warning indicators and systems, we put research evidence into useable formats that can be easily turned into action at the state, district, and school levels.

AIR researchers work with schools’, districts’, and states’ own data to identify the indicators that signal students’ readiness for key educational milestones. Starting with indicators drawn from the literature, AIR experts perform appropriate statistical analysis using state-, district-, or school-level data to identify which indicators accurately predict which students are on track.

AIR translates research and evidence-based practices into ready-to-use, effective models to identify students early and support them with appropriate interventions to achieving key educational milestones.

In close collaboration with education leaders, AIR experts help clients use a seven-step, research-based continuous improvement process that enables educators to keep a close eye on at-risk students and to intervene early—and often—to improve student outcomes.

An early warning system can be a powerful strategy to provide data to inform educators’ practices and help students get back on track. An EWS is implemented as a continuous improvement process, improving practices through review and refinement of practice. Through analysis of process, practice, and data, our clients receive recommendations to take action that improve student outcomes.

States, districts, and schools use research-based indicators to identify students at risk of failing to meet key educational milestones such as reading at grade level, on-time graduation, or college readiness and college persistence. By identifying students early, educators can target interventions and supports to help students to achieve readiness and success. AIR works with education leaders to customize and refine early warning systems based on the best available research and evidence.

Many district and school leaders find it challenging to chart a course to meet continuous improvement goals. AIR’s IL-EMPOWER Launch Package was developed to help Illinois district and school leaders assess their continuous improvement needs and put plans into action to improve educator effectiveness and outcomes for students.

To improve education at the school and district levels, it takes real-world, face-to-face partnerships among a variety of stakeholders at the school, district, and state levels, with support from researchers. AIR experts support and study networked improvement communities to find out what works.