In this video interview, AIR principal researcher Susan Muenchow explains the economic reasons why women return to work so quickly and examines the childhood development, economic, and health impacts of paid family leave. Giving mothers more paid time off, she asserts, could lead to costs savings ...
Are teachers working in charter schools more effective in improving student outcomes compared to teachers working in traditional public schools? In this blog post, Umut Özek, a principal researcher at AIR, describes a new study in which he and his fellow authors examined the disparities in teacher effectiveness between charter ...
Despite concerted efforts by various governments and international agencies, low agricultural productivity remains a persistent challenge in many developing countries. Using findings from three case studies of value chain assessments conducted by AIR in Uganda, Mozambique, and Georgia, AIR provided evidence-based policy recommendations to improve programming in value chains in ...
Child welfare systems in the United States are intended to ensure that children are safe, cared for within stable and loving forever families, and able to thrive in childhood and beyond. This work is both complex and critical, and these systems face a number of ongoing challenges. This blog provides ...
Through the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, the USDA provides support to low-income, food-deficit countries around the globe to reduce hunger and improve literacy and primary education, especially for girls. Since 2013, AIR has conducted over 25 evaluations of McGovern Dole Food for Education projects around ...
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.
While we believe wholly in numbers and facts, they don't tell the full, human story. Karen Francis, AIR Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, offers a stirring personal account of a recent trip visiting AIR-supported projects in Tanzania and Zambia.
According to existing research, giving mothers paid time off could lead to both improved health outcomes and overall costs savings from reduced employee turnover and re-training costs. AIR's Alex Holod describes the benefits of family leave for both parent and child, why some parents aren’t taking full advantage of available ...
A quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) is a voluntary state assessment system that uses multidimensional data on early childhood education programs to rate program quality, support quality improvement efforts, and provide information to families about the quality of available early childhood education programs. This report describes three versions of ...
The Indiana Choice Scholarship Program, launched in 2011, offers a rich opportunity to study how a large-scale tuition-voucher program works and to analyze the results it has produced in its first few years. This article describes the results of a four-year study of the Indiana program.