AIR's Center for Early Learning Systems offers practical tools, resources, and methodologies to assist with planning, implementing, and evaluating preschool and other school readiness programs.
States have prioritized documenting and improving the quality of early childhood education programs by developing quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs). This report describes the quality improvement efforts of early childhood education programs participating in Iowa’s voluntary quality rating and improvement system, the Iowa Quality Rating System (QRS). The findings ...
The Texas School Ready! (TSR!) Project consists of communities in which independent districts, Head Start agencies, and child care providers agree to collaborate as partners in providing high-quality instruction to 3- and 4-year-old, income-eligible, at-risk children to promote their readiness for school. AIR was one of three organizations that conducted ...
AIR evaluates early care and education programs and policies at the federal, state and local level. AIR evaluations help identify best practices and lead to recommendations for improving program quality and outcomes, with an eye toward system-wide implementation.
Documenting and improving early childhood program quality is a national priority, leading to a rapid expansion of Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRISs). QRISs document and improve the quality of early childhood education programs and provide clear information to families about their childcare choices. Findings from this study suggest that ...
Assessing access to early care and education is a key first step in any policy improvement initiative. In part because of the diverse delivery system for early childhood programs in the U.S., there is no single source of data on the availability of programs much less on the enrollment in ...
Now more than ever, districts and schools need to use data to support students in completing high school and positioning themselves for success after graduation. To help address this urgent need, AIR has joined eight partner organizations to launch the GRAD Partnership for Student Success. AIR’s participation with this effort ...
Research has firmly established that the first five years of a child’s life are critical for future success in school and in life, yet a September 2018 report shows that young children’s educational experiences are inconsistent across the U.S. and around the world. The Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators ...