America’s universities rank high on almost any list of the world’s best universities, but this high esteem rests on a highly unequal distribution of wealth. With less than 4% of the 1,600 or so not-for-profit private universities reporting endowments of more than $1 billion each, why are they tax-exempt? As ...
Zero tolerance policies were born out of fear and even desperation. After the 1999 school shootings in Colorado, some educators and public figures adopted a tough law-and-order stance; but, instead of deterrence, we got a discipline regime of mass suspensions. In this blog post, AIR's Peter Cookson argues that zero ...
A major theme addressed by President Obama is improving low-income students’ access to the nation’s most prestigious campuses. This goal is wrapped in “undermatching”—the idea that low-income students are not applying to the more selective colleges they could attend. But, as this blog post explains, perhaps the more important goal ...
Years of research show that students from low-income families are more likely to forget previously learned material over the summer than students from wealthier families. Over time, these losses add up, widening the socioeconomic disparity in academic performances. Carol McElvain explains how high quality summer opportunities for low-income students can ...
More than 400 senior U.S. Department of Education leaders gathered in early May to discuss the importance of postsecondary education. Leveraging evidence scans conducted by AIR's Center for Applied Research in Postsecondary Education (CARPE), we offer four ways to invest more strongly in scaling and institutionalizing evidence-based strategies to improve ...
We know that instructional quality exerts a key factor in influencing student achievement. In this blog post, Angela Minnici and Jenni Fipaza argue the need to better leverage teacher expertise to improve outcomes for all students by shifting the focus away from individual teacher performance to the collective performance of ...
Safe and supportive school communities foster students’ social, emotional, and academic needs. Educators want actionable strategies and practices to ensure that all students can access equitable learning environments. Creating Safe, Equitable, Engaging Schools helps school leaders make sense of the various evidence-based resources and frameworks designed to support the whole ...
Access to in-prison education and work experience are associated with a reduction in the likelihood of recidivism and provide inmates with a critical element on the path to reshape their personal identities. Could offering prisoners more education and work experience inside prison be a key solution to mass incarceration in ...
This spotlight takes a look at the history of Title I, how the program has changed over time, and how it affects children, schools, families and education policy. Experts weigh in on the program's past and future in interviews, briefs, and blogs.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) gives states the authority and flexibility to turn around their lowest performing schools. In this blog post, Allison Gandhi asks if states can succeed where federal policy requirements have run into walls, using the success of the Massachusetts Wraparound Zone initiative as an example. ...