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

Infographic: Public Charter School Enrollment
23 Jan 2020
Q & A

As Charter Schools Expand, Research and Evidence-Based Practices Are Critical

Across 43 states and the District of Columbia, 7,000 charter schools now enroll more than 3 million students, according to a report co-authored by AIR. Megan Austin highlights how research and evidence-based practices can help charter management organizations and charter school leaders build capacity, develop effective teachers and leaders, and meet the needs of their students.
14 Jan 2020
Report

Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States

These reports build upon a series of National Center for Education Statistics reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988.

Project

Humanitarian Education Accelerator

Recognizing the insufficient evidence available to scale education innovations in humanitarian settings, the Department for International Development, UNICEF, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees established the Humanitarian Education Accelerator (HEA), with the aim of understanding how to create the conditions necessary to scale existing pilot programs. In order to begin building the evidence base, the HEA engaged AIR to produce a meta-evaluation to synthesize the findings of mixed methods process evaluations of all five of the innovation teams, as well as impact evaluations of three innovation teams’ work.
30 Dec 2019
Report

Digest of Education Statistics

Since 1962, the primary purpose of the Digest of Education Statistics has been to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from pre-kindergarten through graduate school, containing data on a variety of topics.

Image of kindergarten teacher and student
18 Dec 2019
Video

REL Midwest Videos and Documentaries

The Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest (REL Midwest), one of ten regional educational laboratories funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, serves the educational needs of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Explore these vidoes and documentaries to learn more about the topics we cover.
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