Massachusetts has long received newcomers from many countries. Thousands of newcomers enter kindergarten through 12th grade in Massachusetts each year, and roughly 2 percent of those students arrive after having experienced a gap in their education. These students are recognized by Massachusetts as needing additional instructional and social-emotional support and ...
Besides the direct impact of COVID-19 on daily life, the pandemic has affected how individuals approach their personal health and well-being, including if and how they seek health care services.
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.
California’s supply of teachers is at a 12-year low. The trend continues as enrollment in educator preparation programs has dropped by more than 70 percent in the last decade. At a recent gathering in Sacramento, leading researchers, policy experts, and local practitioners looked at the problem in detail and offered ...
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.
This series of monographs addresses the issues of youth with cognitive or behavioral disabilities and their experiences in the juvenile justice system. Staff in the system can better serve these children by receiving support in understanding these issues.
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.
There is huge participation by foreign-born adults in the adult education system. This final report from the Transitioning English Language Learners (TELL) study identified models for transitioning ELLs and implications for programming that included recommendations for curriculum and instruction, program design and evaluation, professional development and teacher training, and state ...
Most research and practice in second language learning supports the theory that literacy in one language assists literacy development in another language. The reverse hypothesis also is believed to be true—a lack of literacy skills in the native language hinders literacy development in the second language. The “What Works” Study ...