Education

Increasing the effectiveness of education

AIR is committed to increasing the effectiveness of education at all levels through rigorous research and evaluation, training, and technical assistance. Our work spans the learning lifespan—from pre-K to postsecondary education, career readiness, and adult education—and focuses on a wide range of topics, including STEM, social and emotional learning, and state and federal education policies.

Our rigorous, state-of-the-art research and evaluation work provides important evidence for education policymakers and practitioners to use when answering crucial questions about program implementation, challenges, and solutions. Through our policy, practice, and systems change work, our experts help clients address educational issues and challenges at the local, state, national, and international levels by applying evidence-based practices in educational and community settings.

Latest Work

13 Nov 2018
Spotlight

Spotlight on Native Nations

Contributing and working alongside Native Nations, AIR has a deep commitment to engaging communities, fostering shared vision and values, building capacity, and developing strategic alliances to achieve sustainable systems change in Indian Country.
Image of Jameela Conway-Turner
9 Nov 2018
Video

Long Story Short: Why Is Social and Emotional Learning Important for Equity in Education?

In this video, AIR researcher Jameela Conway-Turner discusses how social and emotional learning can improve student outcomes and how districts and schools can use it in their equity initiatives to support all students.
26 Oct 2018
Report

Beyond Accountability: Improving the Use of Information to Support Teaching and Learning Through Continuous Improvement Cycles

States and school districts have made significant investments in systems to measure teacher performance, with the ultimate goal of improving student learning. In this report, AIR experts share their findings from the two-year Beyond Accountability project, in which four school districts identified a specific problem of practice and used plan-do-study-act cycles, an iterative process, to develop, test, and revise their strategies to address that challenge.
Image of students and teacher at whiteboard
24 Oct 2018
Service

Using Networked Improvement Communities to Improve Educational Practice

To improve education at the school and district levels, it takes real-world, face-to-face partnerships among a variety of stakeholders at the school, district, and state levels, with support from researchers. AIR experts support and study networked improvement communities to find out what works.
10 Oct 2018
Report

Maximizing Student Agency: Implementing and Measuring Student-Centered Learning Practices

Student agency, or the ability to manage one’s learning, can have significant effects on academic achievement as students take an active role in seeking and internalizing new knowledge. To learn more about the practices that support student agency, AIR studied four New Tech Network high schools in three states to determine which teacher practices help or hinder the development of student agency, and whether these practices are effective across educational contexts and with different student subgroups.
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