Laura Shankland is a senior technical assistance consultant at AIR. She has more than ten years of project management and education experience, overseeing the development of a range of resources for Grades K–12 educators. Shankland provides technical assistance, professional development, and communication support for AIR’s work with the Illinois 21st ...
Laura Michaelson is a senior researcher at AIR. She uses quantitative modeling and evidence synthesis methods to improve the use and translation of evidence in youth development. Her research also focuses on the cognitive and social factors that promote healthy functioning and prevent problem behaviors from early childhood through adolescence.
Dr. ...
Although English language learners (ELLs) have an increasing presence in postsecondary education, their unique needs are often unmet by institutions of higher education. Technology-mediated English language instruction may be a solution to the pressing challenges that postsecondary institutions face in providing personalized instruction to ELLs, because it allows instruction to ...
In this personal essay, AIR Principal Researcher Patricia Garcia-Arena shares her memories of being an English learner in preschool and elementary school—and how early literacy experiences can be better for ELs today, thanks to evidence-based instructional practices.
Which practices foster college readiness for students, particularly English learners? This study interviewed students, teachers and administrators to determine what college readiness means to staff and how teachers help prepare students.
Caitlin Dawkins, a principal technical assistance consultant at AIR, helped to develop the concept of Second Chance Month, with colleagues at Prison Fellowship. In this Q&A, Dawkins explains why successful reentry is hard to measure and dispels some misconceptions around reentry.
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 developed a systematic, transparent, evidence-based protocol to review and translate the extant research about juvenile drug courts and related interventions into comprehensive, reasonable, actionable, understandable, and measurable guidelines.
Federal School Improvement Grants (SIGs) support turnaround efforts in the nation’s lowest-performing schools, including many that serve a large number of English Language Learner Students (ELLs). This evaluation brief examines 11 high-ELL SIG schools’ capacity and efforts to address the unique needs of ELLs. ...
Meeting the needs of English learners (ELs) and students with disabilities (SWDs) is a critical yet challenging responsibility for all schools. This brief highlights four key strategies that emerged from the exploration of practices and systems in place in Massachusetts turnaround schools that successfully provide appropriate interventions to all of ...