Ashu Handa is an economist whose work centers on global poverty, health, and human development in sub-Saharan Africa. At AIR, he works to expand Equity Initiative work internationally and supports AIR’s global poverty research and policy efforts. He has been a professor at the University of North Carolina for 20 ...
Disparities persist in educational achievement for students of color and low-income students. In this video interview, Darren Woodruff, principal researcher at AIR, explains how schools can create a climate to help reduce the achievement gap and help all students learn.
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.
In response to the Great Recession, the U.S. Congress passed, and President Barack Obama signed into law, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Education received a total of $100 billion, including $7 billion for two of the Obama administration’s signature grant programs: Race to the Top (RTT) and ...
Early warning systems offer a way to use available data to identify students at risk and drive targeted interventions that help them get back on track. This issue paper includes lessons learned from more than seven years of working with individual schools, school districts, and state education agencies as they ...
In this blog post, published as part of the work of the Midwest Comprehensive Center, Chris Times discusses how states can ensure that all students have access to excellent educators.
With Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s announcement of the Excellent Educators for All initiative earlier this month, putting excellent principals at the helm of high-need schools remains critical. To better prepare the new principals, Aaron Butler contends in this blog post, state- and district-level leaders should make leadership development and coaching ...
During a period of four years, Say Yes to Education developed data resources and tools reflecting a commitment, as part of a community-based reform initiative (Say Yes Syracuse), to identify needs, monitor implementation, certify results, provide transparency and engage stakeholders. This paper reviews the program and describes lessons learned. ...
The root causes of youth violence are similar in communities across the globe, but community responses to improve public safety and well-being vary considerably. To address this need in the Latin America and Caribbean region, the USAID selected AIR to conduct a global review of the evidence on youth violence ...
This brief uses the experience of eight California school districts—all members of the California Collaborative on District Reform—to suggest a more systemic approach to school turnaround.