Getting a job is about more than academic performance. In this blog post, Kimberly Kendziora discusses the growing body of research on the importance of social and emotional skills, such as self-management, social awareness, and relationship skills.
The science of learning and development (SoLD) is a body of knowledge that describes how people learn and develop. For the SoLD Alliance, AIR has developed a planning tool to assist educators in implementing the Guiding Principles for Equitable Whole Child Design.
AIR and MDRC, along with three small-business subcontractors, designed a randomized field trial to examine the impact of professional development (PD) on reading instruction and student achievement. The study combined scientific rigor with an understanding of how schools operate and what schools were doing in an attempt to improve reading ...
This report, based on a national evaluation of the Eisenhower program, provides information about how the program is operating and how it might be strengthened. A second objective of this report is to contribute to knowledge about teacher professional development. The Eisenhower program is a source of funding for professional ...
In this second blog post in a series examining educational challenges facing youth in foster care, from early childhood into college, Trish Campie offers some promising solutions to creating pathways to college and career success.
Competency-based education is an educational approach that focuses on mastery of an expanded set of competencies—rather than seat time—as a measure of student learning. This brief explores how states and districts can define learner competencies that reflect the full range of knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for students to achieve ...
Research suggests that effective teaching is the single most important school-based factor influencing student achievement and other student outcomes. And it may be particularly important to low-income and minority students. AIR and RAND are evaluating the Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative, which aims to improve teaching effectiveness by changing ...
Between 2018 and 2020—before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic—Burkina Faso experienced multiple shocks, leading to prolonged school absences even after the pandemic ebbed, increasing the risk that youth not attending school could be recruited into violent extremist organizations. AIR is assisting Save the Children in focusing on support for ...
To improve services to students and families, we need information on what districts and charter management organizations are doing and plan to do to address COVID-19. From mid-May through July 2020, we are asking school district and charter management organization leaders to respond to a nationally representative survey of school ...
Evaluation systems appear to be one of the most rapidly changing policy issues affecting teachers in recent years. This paper provides a brief synopsis of the process of dissecting the evaluation system.