Teachers matter. Educators, policymakers and the general public alike agree that great teachers are vital to a thriving K-12 education system, yet the pathways to assembling a high quality teaching force remain elusive. This case study of Garden Grove Unified School District, winner of the 2004 Broad Prize for Urban ...
A first-of-its kind exploratory survey of National and State Teachers of the Year finds that having accomplished teachers support new or struggling teachers was considered a highly important factor in improving effectiveness – both for the person receiving and providing the support. This and other findings are shared in a ...
Educators and other stakeholders in the education field recognize the power of school systems to create the conditions for student success in our public schools; however, these approaches rarely focus on the capacity of system leaders themselves. The Stuart Foundation California Leaders in Education (SCALE) Initiative is an effort to ...
As district leaders search for the best ways to improve student learning with the Common Core State Standards, some early implementers are giving us an opportunity to learn from their experience.This brief describes Sacramento City Unified School District’s approach to developing units of study that guide teachers’ classroom practice. The ...
The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) represents a fundamental transformation of the way California allocates state funds to school districts and the ways the state expects districts to make decisions about (and report on) the use of these funds. This brief identifies some early lessons about how best to use ...
AIR and Turnaround for Children have authored two white papers to support districts who are applying for the Race to the Top – District (RTTD) competition. The two white papers provide guidelines for establishing foundational conditions as outlined by RTTD and for using a specific set of metrics to measure ...
Caitlin Dawkins, a principal technical assistance consultant at AIR, helped to develop the concept of Second Chance Month, with colleagues at Prison Fellowship. In this Q&A, Dawkins explains why successful reentry is hard to measure and dispels some misconceptions around reentry.
A qualitative study of nonrespondent addresses to the 2019 administration of the National Household Education Survey was conducted to better understand the drivers of nonresponse to mail-based household surveys in general—and to the NHES in particular—and to provide actionable information on how to combat this growing problem. ...
Disadvantaged populations are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking. AIR helps support the distribution of free materials that raise public awareness around human trafficking and connect victims to emergency services.
AIR developed a systematic, transparent, evidence-based protocol to review and translate the extant research about juvenile drug courts and related interventions into comprehensive, reasonable, actionable, understandable, and measurable guidelines.