President Obama’s proposed federal budget would increase funding for many education initiatives, programs for homeless veterans and disabled workers, technology training for teachers, and other programs. What does research and evidence say about these programs' effectiveness and value?
Getting a job is about more than academic performance. In this blog post, Kimberly Kendziora discusses the growing body of research on the importance of social and emotional skills, such as self-management, social awareness, and relationship skills.
Meeting the needs of English learners (ELs) and students with disabilities (SWDs) is a critical yet challenging responsibility for all schools. This brief highlights four key strategies that emerged from the exploration of practices and systems in place in Massachusetts turnaround schools that successfully provide appropriate interventions to all of ...
In this second blog post in a series examining educational challenges facing youth in foster care, from early childhood into college, Trish Campie offers some promising solutions to creating pathways to college and career success.
In this blog post, Matthew Soldner argues that, as Congress works on reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the need for far better research and access to federal student aid data should be high on its agenda.
States and schools are shifting their focus to ensure college and career readiness is a realistic and attainable goal for all students. This brief provides an overview of competency-based education, one model to support college and career readiness for all.
Competency-based education is an educational approach that focuses on mastery of an expanded set of competencies—rather than seat time—as a measure of student learning. This brief explores how states and districts can define learner competencies that reflect the full range of knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for students to achieve ...
For decades, charter schools and district-run schools have been placed on opposing sides by advocates and policymakers. With support from the state and other partners, the Lawrence Public School District (LPS) state receiver brought these two seemingly opposing ideas together as a turnaround strategy for the district’s lowest performing schools. ...
The School Improvement Grants program provides grants to support rigorous interventions aimed at turning around the nation’s persistently lowest achieving schools. AIR has worked with the Department of Education to develop profiles of state-, district-, and school-level strategies to build capacity for turning around the lowest-performing schools. ...
By incorporating college and career readiness principles into a well-rounded education, states, and districts can leverage federal funding for a well-rounded education to support college and career readiness strategies.This brief describes how states can develop and implement their own definitions of a well-rounded education focused on improving college and career ...