Systems Change

AIR works with many agencies, strengthening their capacities to implement innovations and evidence-based practices to benefit the populations they serve.

Addressing challenges in the education, health, workforce, and social services sectors, we work with agency staff to map assets, conduct organizational readiness and needs assessments, co-interpret data for strategic planning, and identify, select, and evaluate evidence-based policies and practices that best fit the specific demographics and needs of their audiences served.

Through technology solutions, in-person and virtual professional and peer learning events, AIR provides training, technical assistance, and ongoing coaching to support agency staff throughout the change process. We monitor and track progress through our Technical Assistance Tracker to provide data on inputs, outputs, and outcomes for the purpose of continuous quality improvement, and to report progress to clients and the field.

A hallmark of AIR's ability to bridge research and practice is both the use of data for planning, monitoring, and measuring progress and the ability to guide organizations in selecting and implementing the most relevant evidence-based practices to meet their needs.

Featured AIR Work

The Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL Center)

The AIR-led GTL Center supports state education leaders to grow, respect, and retain great teachers and leaders. AIR experts use methods including technical assistance and development of online resources to support the implementation of college and career standards; ensure the equitable access of effective teachers and leaders; and recruit, retain, reward, and support effective educators. Through GTL Center, AIR experts also support states to develop coherent human capital management systems; use data to guide professional development and improve instruction; and create safe academic environments to increase student learning through positive behavior management and appropriate discipline.

Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs - youth.gov

The Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs (IWGYP), strives to improve outcomes for youth by promoting collaboration among 12 federal departments and seven federal agencies to share resources, tools and strategies with youth-serving organizations. AIR manages the initiative with a robust website; microsites with strategies, tools, and resources; and social media to engage youth in IWGYP efforts. The working group is chaired by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is funded jointly by the member agencies.

MIDEH - Honduras (Mejorando el Impacto al Desempeño Estudiantil de Honduras)

Through the MIDEH Project, AIR supports the government of Honduras to improve education quality by building and sustaining national standards-based educational reform. Through a collaborative effort between USAID and the Secretariat of Education in Honduras, the project has established an education assessment system and a “culture of evaluation.” The project builds capacity at all levels to adapt an assessment system needed to reliably measure and improve student achievement. The MIDEH Project also works toward maintaining the assessment system through technical capacity and ownership by establishing an assessment unit that takes responsibility for the national student assessment system, and transferring technical capacity to the staff within the assessment unit.

Partnership for Patients

AIR collaborates with the federal Center for Medicaid Services on this public-private partnership to improve the quality and safety of health care in acute care medical centers forming the Hospital Improvement Innovation Network—16 organizations working at regional-, state-, national-, and hospital system-level to drive outcomes. Goals of the Partnership for Patients were to make health care safer by decreasing patient harm for 121 hospital-acquired conditions in more than 4,000 hospitals and to improve care transitions by decreasing 30-day hospital readmissions. AIR’s support included monthly learning events and newsletters, affinity group meetings, patient speakers and a resource library. Technical assistance and coaching were provided to individual sites, with evaluation tools including a metric dashboard measuring patient-family engagement, impact stories, and data.