To improve overall educational attainment and support equitable outcomes, it is critical to support working-age adults’ enrollment in postsecondary education—focusing especially on adult learners of color. This project, supported by Lumina Foundation, aims to help leaders at postsecondary institutions and state system offices design programs in ways that support the ...
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. ...
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 Preschool Development Grant Birth Through Five initiative supports states to create plans to facilitate collaboration and coordination among existing early childhood care and education programs. AIR has partnered with four states—California, Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota—to support their work as they expand access to high-quality early childhood care and ...
To understand better how educators and systems can support dual language learners and their families, AIR conducted interviews, surveys, and direct assessments on their experiences and outcomes in California from 2018-2022. The findings from this multifaceted study could inform policy and practice nationwide. ...
Recent federal and state policies that recognize the benefits of high-quality early childhood education and care have led to a rapid expansion of quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs). This study examined QRISs in use across the Midwest Region to describe approaches that states use in developing and implementing a ...
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, ...