Knowing that the current context is dramatically different than previous school years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that students’ access to learning from home varies, how should schools grade student performance? This brief from the California Collaborative on District Reform explores some of the policy options California districts and ...
On February 23, the AIR Equity Initiative hosted an event whose panel of experts discussed different strategies for systematically and meaningfully engaging diverse voices and perspectives in research, technical assistance, and policy development and implementation to address long-standing social inequities. Each panelist’s experiences offered important takeaways for individuals and organizations ...
Twelve years after federal policy first tried to chip away at the problem of unequal access to teacher quality through No Child Left Behind, the field continues to grapple with this complex issue. In this blog post, Jane Coggshall describes the highlights of a recent AIR event where experts discussed ...
NAEP results are Rorschach Tests for policy wonks—a golden chance for free-association policy speculation. Small fluctuations in average scores on NAEP give rise to big explanations. Forget the quibbling over tiny differences in test scores; it’s time to rebuild schools on evidence-based, comprehensive policies that have been shown to work ...
Implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) presented policymakers and stakeholders with opportunities to improve outcomes for schools and students as well as teachers and leaders. AIR worked with districts and states to help them navigate the most current information, key topics, and research-based resources for planning and implementing ESSA ...
Zero tolerance policies were born out of fear and even desperation. After the 1999 school shootings in Colorado, some educators and public figures adopted a tough law-and-order stance; but, instead of deterrence, we got a discipline regime of mass suspensions. In this blog post, AIR's Peter Cookson argues that zero ...
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. ...
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.
The science of learning and development (SoLD) is a cross-disciplinary body of knowledge that describes how people learn and develop. AIR is part of the SoLD Alliance, which serves as a resource to connect and support leaders in research, practice, and policy to transform America’s education systems and achieve equity ...
Schools must be places of safety and support for all students. And yet, in an effort to make our schools safe havens, districts have adopted zero-tolerance policies and increased school policing. The result, however, has driven some of our most vulnerable students out of school and into a judicial system ...