Elizabeth Spier is a principal researcher at AIR. She has over 20 years of experience designing and managing large-scale, policy-relevant studies examining the effectiveness of programs, and interventions designed to improve developmental and educational outcomes for children. Her expertise includes child development, safe and supportive learning environments, child and family ...
Core competencies are the capabilities that are critical for afterschool staff to deliver high quality programs. These competencies are intended to set a foundation for professional development, provide opportunities for career advancement, and inform program quality and continuous improvement.
What is summer STEM? Hands-on programs that teach science, technology, engineering, and math in ways that engage young people and fight the summer learning loss that especially affects the nation’s most vulnerable children and youth. In this blog post, Elizabeth Devaney and Courtney Tanenbaum share what we’re learning about successful ...
Countries such as Bangladesh and Mozambique have made universal access to pre-primary education a priority in recent years. Other countries hoping to improve their pre-primary education programs can learn from the experiences of Bangladesh and Mozambique; specifically, some of the necessary conditions to make pre-primary education programs effective. ...
Mary Kay Dugan is a managing technical assistant consultant at AIR. She is passionate about identifying evidence-based promising practices and translating them into policies and effective programs focused on underserved populations including disadvantaged youth and young adults. Dugan has over 30 years of experience helping federal, state, and local governments ...
AIR’s work in civic learning draws on the diverse content and methodological expertise of AIR staff and the collaborations we form with clients and partners. Our research and technical assistance cuts across several areas of civic learning.
Deborah Moroney is a vice president at AIR, where she leads AIR’s work in the area of Youth, Family, and Community Development. Dr. Moroney is a methodological expert in implementation science—in the context of both rigorous research and program evaluation—and her work often bridges the two worlds of research and ...
Jessica Newman is a senior researcher who leads research, evaluation, and capacity-building initiatives in collaboration with a variety of national, state, and local entities. Her work is primarily focused on positive youth development and social and emotional learning (SEL) in supportive learning environments, including out-of-school time and informal learning settings. ...
The Plan, Do, Study, Act Process is central to the improvement of instructional routines. Watch one of the Better Math Teaching Network members in real time and in a real classroom setting introduce the Plan, Do, Study, Act, or PDSA, process.
Very little is known about what resources are required to operate high-quality Out-of-School Time (OST) programs. The purpose of this study is to develop timely and relevant estimates of OST program costs and the funding necessary to support high-quality OST programs. AIR will use state-of-the-field methods for determining education program ...