Taking advanced courses in high school predicts a broad array of positive outcomes, yet students from certain backgrounds have been excluded from these courses historically. To address this problem, more than 60 districts in Washington state implemented a policy that automatically enrolled all qualified high school students in advanced coursework. ...
Education and health policy experts from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) are available to the media to discuss the implications of President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address to the nation on Wednesday, January 27, 2010. AIR, a nonpartisan not-for-profit behavior and social science research organization based ...
Some of the nation’s lowest-performing schools implementing a school intervention model funded by a School Improvement Grant (SIG) used more practices intended to improve student achievement than similar schools that didn’t implement a SIG-funded model. However, there was no evidence that SIG directly led to greater use of practices or ...
AIR has been selected to lead a federally funded program that will help states, school districts and communities in the Midwest conduct research on educational programs and policies and use evidence to build equity in education and improve outcomes. AIR has been awarded a five-year contract to lead Regional Educational ...
In this blog post, Matthew Soldner argues that, as Congress works on reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the need for far better research and access to federal student aid data should be high on its agenda.
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 ...
The Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) is a central component of California’s Local Control Funding Formula, which requires districts to describe their goals, their strategies to achieve these goals, and the resources allocated to support these strategies. This brief outlines the key challenges undercutting the LCAP’s effectiveness and offers short ...
Now that states have started submitting their Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plans, the hard work of implementation will soon be underway. AIR experts provide evidence-based policy perspectives on ESSA and states’ strategies outlined in their proposed plans.
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.
School improvement policy for the past few decades has been characterized by mandated lists of activities designed to stimulate a dramatic turnaround in student achievement. In the long run, this policy approach did not engender the necessary school-level changes. This brief demonstrates why new policies must aim to get the ...