Early reading is an important indicator of future academic success, but results from the recent national reading assessments show that more than one-third of the nation’s fourth graders do not have sufficient reading skills. By utilizing two nationally representative datasets, this study replicates and expands the early reading growth research ...
Rachel Chamberlain, Ph.D. is a TA consultant in the Education Systems and Policy program area at AIR. Her primary responsibilities include qualitative research, capacity building, system implementation, and technical assistance support. She has extensive research and practice experience in the following areas: rural education, school-community partnerships, youth development, and school ...
Katie Ports has over 20 years of research experience. Dr. Ports is a nationally known subject matter expert on the science of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and comprehensive violence prevention. Dr. Ports conducts research to advance the evidence base of prevention strategies that address the conditions that place children and ...
Namita Tanya Padgaonkar conducts research and evaluation work for programs focused on supporting youth and their communities. She is dedicated to using evidence to improve the lives of young people, particularly those impacted by the juvenile justice system. As such, her work spans the multiple contexts in which youth develop. ...
Dena D. Slanda is a senior TA consultant in the Education and Instruction division at AIR. Dr. Slanda provides technical assistance and professional development to states and school districts with an emphasis on improving results for students with high-intensity needs. She does this by strengthening educator and administrator professional learning ...
Caitlin Deal is a data scientist at AIR. Her primary responsibilities include using ArcGIS software to spatially model and analyze survey and administrative data, create online interactive story maps, applications, and dashboards, conduct GIS trainings with both internal and external clients, use python to create scripts to automate mapping tasks, ...
Samuel E. DeWitt spent 7 years as a faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s (UNC Charlotte) Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology before coming to AIR. During his time at UNC Charlotte, Dr. DeWitt served as a co-PI for a National Institute of Justice (NIJ)-funded project ...
In this blog post, Principal Researcher Lyzz Davis talks about the work of AIR's Evidence Support Center and its companion Evidence Library, to help educators navigate the path from evidence to practice by amplifying the work of the What Works Clearinghouse.
Higher education focuses on “first-year retention” (measured from fall to fall) as the key metric indicating whether students are on a path toward their degree. This piece explores “second- to third- year retention,” tracking students who did enroll during their second year (and therefore are “retained” in official metrics) and ...
The Colombia Youth Resilience Activity (YRA) aims to address these challenges in high-risk communities across the country by designing a holistic solution that fosters youth assets and agency, while also strengthening protective environments, healthy relationships, and economic opportunities.
