Through the American Instructional Resources Survey (AIRS), RAND investigates the use of instructional materials in K–12 English language arts, mathematics, and science classrooms across the United States. AIRS is intended to examine the factors related to the use of standards-aligned curricula, and how curriculum use and supports for curriculum use are related to teaching.
The AIRS project is made possible through generous support from the Gates Foundation, the Schusterman Family Philanthropies, and the Walton Family Foundation. The Overdeck Family Foundation was a funding partner from 2019-2021.
AIRS grew out of recent projects from RAND documenting that most of the instructional materials teachers report using in their classrooms—and ones that are required by school systems—are not well-aligned with standards recently adopted in most states. This matters because RAND reports have connected teachers’ use of standards-aligned materials with higher teacher knowledge about their standards and more frequent use of standards-aligned instructional practices.
This and other research demonstrating positive effects of curricula in some settings have fueled state interest in use of materials as a policy lever for educational improvement, and many states have begun to encourage use of more standards-aligned curricula in classrooms. Nonetheless, we do not know enough about how state reform efforts are changing what curriculum materials teachers use and what factors support teachers’ use of curriculum.
To address gaps in what we know about curriculum use, AIRS is collecting data via the RAND American School Leader Panel and American Teacher Panel on topics including:
Director, Education and Employment Program; Senior Policy Researcher; Professor of Policy Analysis, RAND School of Public Policy
Policy Researcher; Professor of Policy Analysis, RAND School of Public Policy
Senior Policy Researcher; Professor of Policy Analysis, RAND School of Public Policy
Associate Policy Researcher
We invite you to explore the AIRS data in Bento, a free online data visualization tool. Bento allows you to filter and segment survey results by school characteristics or educator background, compare data to state and national averages, and export visualizations for reports. Learn more and get access to Bento here.
A public-use version of AIRS data is available on the AEP Data Portal. The public version of these data will not include teachers' states or the specific curricula they used, but it will include limited school demographic data and and some summary information about their curriculum use. In addition, restricted-access AIRS data files will be available that researchers can purchase. These restricted files will include information suppressed in the public version (e.g. teachers’ state and demographic information). Further information on how to apply for access to restricted data files will be available on the AEP Data Portal.
Learn more about accessing AEP dataRAND reports over the past several years have documented that most of the instructional materials teachers report using in their classrooms—and those that are required by school systems—are not well-aligned with standards recently adopted in most states. This matters because RAND reports have connected teachers’ use of standards-aligned materials with higher teacher knowledge about their standards and more frequent use of standards-aligned instructional practices.
This and other research demonstrating positive effects of curricula in some settings have fueled state interest in use of materials as a policy lever for educational improvement, and many states have begun to encourage use of more standards-aligned curricula in classrooms. Nonetheless, we know very little about the mechanisms by which curricula may support improved teaching and learning and, thus, what advice to give to policymakers and educators about the best and most productive uses of curricula.
