State implementation of new standards (revising, adapting, and adopting new standards) is a significant undertaking. Many states are just beginning to consider whether to modify existing science standards, adapt standards being used in other states, or develop new ones. This document is intended to guide state boards of education through ...
American education is undergoing considerable change from improvements in information technology to increased efforts to tie teacher performance to student achievement. This thought paper proposes steps to embrace that change, primarily through fundamentally reconsidering the teacher’s role in education. ...
Although there is a growing body of evidence designed to facilitate understanding of teacher preparation, the study outcomes emerge long after teacher candidates have left preparation programs. AIR brought together 35 researchers, teacher preparation providers, and school leaders to discuss what kind of research designs would help teacher preparation providers ...
Like school districts across the nation, Vancouver School District is confronting the challenge of finding, employing, and retaining great teachers in an extremely challenging and competitive labor market. This report describes the systemic model it is using, consisting of changes in compensation, extended duties, assessment and evaluation, professional growth and ...
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, requires that states develop and submit a State Plan to the U.S. Department of Education. To ensure a solid foundation for State Plan development and further stakeholder engagement, the Pennsylvania Department of Education asked AIR summarize ...
The initiatives to enhance adult learning program accountability and assessment systems of the following states are described in this paper: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Oregon, Texas, Washington, West Virginia.
AIR is working with RAND to evaluate the strategic human capital reform efforts of three school districts and a cluster of charter management organizations identified by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Among preliminary findings, the authors assert that the sustainability of the reforms studied relies on ...
Rural educators in the Northeast Region are beginning to implement the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. For the implementation to be successful, teachers reported needing more time to collaborate and increased access to high-quality curricula and professional development opportunities.
Using administrative longitudinal data from five states, this report looks at how value-added measures of teacher performance are affected by changes in state standards and assessments. In most cases, the researchers found that measures of teacher value added are similarly stable in transition years and nontransition years. ...