State Focus: New York
20 million people. More than two and a half million students in 700 districts. New York state strives to improve the lives of its residents, improve schools, support teacher development, and create community support for educational change. For decades, AIR has provided technical assistance, evaluation, and research services to support New York as it seeks to provide leadership for a system that yields the best educated people in the world. Improving people’s lives – that’s our mission too.
Here are some of the success stories in New York:
- District and school improvement: Over the last five years, the Buffalo Public School District secured over $65 million in state and federal funds to support district and school improvement efforts, with the support of AIR. And AIR-supported Buffalo schools are collectively performing better in math and English language arts.
- Charter schools: Charter schools are using numerous new tools to help understand how to transform themselves into a school culture that provides teachers with unprecedented opportunities for advancement, role differentiation, and increased compensation.
- Principal and teacher support: New York-focused briefs provide enhanced knowledge of principal evaluation and support, student learning objectives, end-of-course assessments, and include profiles of successful Teacher Incentive Fund grantees in New York City and Buffalo.
- Families and homelessness: The SHIFT (Service and Housing Interventions for Families in Transition) study examined the effectiveness of emergency shelter, transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing in establishing residential stability and self-sufficiency for families in Upstate New York: Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo.
Response to intervention: Providing support to New York City schools on awareness, implementation, and maintenance of essential components of Response to Intervention.- EngageNY: Educators for ELL students learn how to take the curriculum materials on EngageNY and provide additional scaffolds for ELL students according to their level of English language proficiency, providing examples of how to apply the Progressions to the EngageNY curriculum.
- Afterschool providers in Syracuse: Providers across the city convene with AIR to contribute feedback, develop a shared definition of quality, and create an associated quality improvement process for afterschool programs.
- School’s Out New York City: Building the knowledge base in out-of-school time and understanding the influence of high-quality program implementation on youth outcomes, AIR is working with School’s Out New York City’s team and an advisory board of local stakeholders.
Learn more about these and other New York-AIR collaborations in these areas:
Student Support through Response to Intervention
Afterschool Programs and Extended Learning
Social Development, Family and Child Welfare
Teacher Incentive Funds
Human Capital Management Systems and Teacher Incentive Funds: Tools encourage charter schools to transform themselves into a school culture that provides teachers with unprecedented opportunities for 
advancement, role differentiation, and increased compensation. Read more
Educational Innovation in Teacher Incentive Fund Grants: Providing technical support for four grants in New York City, Buffalo, and New Jersey, including principal and teacher evaluation systems, student growth measurement, performance-based compensation systems, and human capital management systems. Read more
New York City Department of Education Technical Assistance: Working directly with fourteen grantees, producing resources, and providing trainings that address particular challenges in implementing these projects. Read more
English Language Learners
New York State Scaffolding for ELLs: Developing curriculum modules for Pre-K–12 for New York State Education, demonstrating how to scaffold the English language arts and mathematics curriculum modules. Read more
English Language Learner Services for Buffalo Public Schools: Professional development for English language arts and ESL teachers in grades K-12 to improve student outcomes in priority and focus schools. Read more
Student Support through Response to Intervention
New York State Response to Intervention-Technical Assistance: Technical assistance and professional development in Pre-K through Grade 8 in the New York City region on the essential components of Response to Intervention, multiple tiers of instruction, and measuring student progress.
Afterschool Programs and Extended Learning
Say Yes to Education Buffalo Summer School Program: Developing a framework for community support (including afterschool and expanded learning, health and social services) including working sessions with stakeholders to create consensus for a Core Competence Review Process.
Say Yes to Education Syracuse: Evaluation, consultation, and technical assistance including an evaluation and capacity-building effort conducted in partnership with Say Yes, the Syracuse School District, and the local Youth Bureau. Read more
Rochester Area Community Foundation Education Equity (Youth) Initiative: Helping the Foundation to determine priorities and develop an evaluation plan, and providing useful information to improve the program.
School’s Out New York City Out-of-School Time Middle School Expansion: Evaluation and resource development to contribute to building the knowledge base in Out-of-School Time and to understand the influence of high-quality program implementation on youth outcomes. Read more
Social Development, Family and Child Welfare
Service and Housing Interventions for Families in Transition (SHIFT): Examining the effectiveness of emergency shelter, transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing in establishing residential stability for families in four communities in Upstate New York. Read more
Families Struggling After Hurricane Sandy: Supporting New York City Administration for Children’s Services in recovery and preparation for future disasters. Read more
New York State Office of Children and Family Services: Identifying measures of progress toward excellence and equity in the well-being of children, adults, and families and function as a “dashboard” for monitoring. Read more
HIV Treatment Works CDC Campaign: Working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide technical support for HIV Treatment Works, a national communication campaign, including events and local campaign activities in New York. Read more
School Improvement
New York Department of Education School Renewal Assessments: Conducting needs assessments for participating schools, and examining strengths and challenges related to the New York City Framework for 
Great Schools.
State-Developed Alternative Intervention Models for School Improvement Grants: Describing state-created models, including New York, that target specific needs of their school district and schools. Read more
New York City Department of Education Core Curriculum Options and Citywide Curriculum Professional Development the extent to which the Common Core curriculum has been implemented in schools and to examine the impact of professional development. Read more