In this personal essay, AIR Principal Researcher Patricia Garcia-Arena shares her memories of being an English learner in preschool and elementary school—and how early literacy experiences can be better for ELs today, thanks to evidence-based instructional practices.
The U.S. health care system’s complexity, coupled with the emotional and personal nature of serious illness or injury, often makes it difficult for policymakers to obtain informed public views to help guide decisions on complicated health care issues. This study found that public deliberation, which encourages people to become informed ...
The study uses nationally representative data to investigate how high school STEM motivation, STEM course taking, STEM achievement and social networks are associated with the decision of students who go on to enroll in 4-year colleges to choose a STEM major or not. The study findings highlight the important role ...
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 ...
Catherine Barbour is a credentialed School Turnaround Leader with a certificate from Darden/Curry Partnership for Leaders in Education. She successfully turned around three low-performing schools as a principal in urban, suburban, and rural districts.
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.
Social and emotional skills undergird student success—and mold better citizens. Results from the Collaborating Districts Initiative suggest that even modest investments can pay off for individuals, schools, and society. In this policy brief, Kimberly Kendziora and Nick Yoder share the results of the evaluation and offer policy six recommendations for ...
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 ...
In this video, Mandy David, a certified physician assistant and senior communications specialist at AIR, talks about issues that adult sickle cell patients face as she evaluates and treats them at the Johns Hopkins Sickle Cell Center for Adults.