As part of recent reforms, states and districts are designing new approaches to holding schools and districts accountable for moving their students closer to achieving state standards in key academic domains. AIR and its partners contracted with the California Department of Education to conduct an independent evaluation of the Immediate ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented American families with extraordinary challenges. Alarming rates of anxiety and depression symptoms are among the most troubling. In this Q&A, Frank Rider and Kelly Wells discuss the implications for families, schools, and communities.
Federal financial aid is critical to millions of college students’ success each year. Making it possible for policy researchers to leverage the data resources of the Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid office holds the potential to find ways to help even more students succeed. This report outlines six recommendations ...
What impact do Teach for America (TFA) members have on other teachers' performance? A strategy to "cluster" TFA members in high-need schools contributed to large gains in math achievement, but was found to have little effect on reading skills and no spillover effect on other teachers.
This paper addresses statistical aspects of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. One of the goals of this paper is to further the discussion on how gaps in performance might be defined and to offer candidate gap estimators. Each of the candidate definitions of gap given will ...
Guiding Principles to Manage Scholarship Programs represents an overall approach to implementing scholarship programs so as to maximize the learning opportunities to students and families who receive scholarships.
While the road to achieve equity in education has always been challenging, the COVID-19 global pandemic has further complicated these efforts. Through AIR’s work with eight states as part of the U.S. Department of Education’s comprehensive center program, we are learning more about which strategies are showing promise. Here are ...
The simple act of not attending school consistently increases the likelihood that children will be unable to read well by grade 3, fail classes in middle school, and drop out of high school. Standing in the way of truly addressing chronic absence are three harmful myths.
The Minnesota Department of Education is developing several learning goals in the new Social and Emotional Learning Framework. The framework outlines five competencies for social and emotional learning: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. ...
Susan Therriault is an education researcher whose work straddles equity, K-12 school improvement, and policy. In this Q&A, she describes her career and her work with the COVID-19 Equity in Education project.