The achievement gap, which refers to the disparity in academic performance between groups of students, is a pressing issue facing K-12 education. AIR is supporting states to close academic achievement gaps through strategies including alternative school discipline policies, GIS mapping, improved early childhood education, and culturally responsive instruction. In this ...
For more than 15 years, AIR has led the National Reporting System for Adult Education for the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE). AIR developed the adult education accountability system—the NRS—and from its inception developed a parallel line of technical assistance activities to ensure its effective implementation and use. ...
AIR Vice President Dan Goldhaber addressed the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on June 22, 2022. In a hearing entitled Supporting Students and Schools: Promising Practices to Get Back on Track, Goldhaber testified on the pandemic's effect on student learning and school district recovery efforts. ...
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.
In this blog post, AIR Senior TA Consultant Abby Bandurraga describes how connecting apprenticeship professionals and supporting them in their work can promote the use of best practices and contribute to expanding and diversifying apprenticeship programs in the U.S.
Quality indicators have helped states define the components of program quality and enabled them to develop measures for evaluating programs to ensure effective practice. This paper presents a summary of state implementation of the quality indicators, focusing on the development of measures and standards for the indicators and the impact ...
The Minnesota Department of Education administers about 65 surveys a year. These surveys help gauge needs, gather feedback, inform programs and policy, and fulfill legislative requirements. The Midwest Comprehensive Center partnered with the department in 2015 and 2016 to build the agency’s capacity in survey methodology, enhance overall survey quality, ...
The Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) was one of 15 regional comprehensive centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education for the October 2012–September 2019 grant cycle of the Comprehensive Centers Program. SECC provided training and technical assistance to state education agencies in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina, ...
This report summarizes prior efforts to provide guidance in resolving the key issues confronting the development of a national outcome-based reporting system for adult education programs.
One objective of the U.S. Department of Education’s School Improvement Grants and Race to the Top program is to help states enhance their capacity to support the turnaround of low-performing schools. This brief documents states’ capacity to support school turnaround as of spring 2012 and spring 2013. It examines capacity ...