AERDF

We are a national discovery and invention hub purpose-built for PreK-12 education to unlock breakthrough methods, knowledge, and solutions for our most pressing teaching and learning challenges.

What Makes Us Unique

Discovery and Invention: We fund multi-year, high-impact research and development (R&D) programs that tackle urgent and complex challenges in teaching and learning.

Next-Generation R&D Infrastructure: We build shared tools, platforms, and virtual environments for education innovators that compress research timelines and make breakthrough work more efficient, ethical, and scalable.

Research-to-Practice Acceleration: We bridge the gap between discovery and adoption, ensuring that bold ideas are co-designed with stakeholders, tested, improved, and ultimately implemented at scale.

How We Conduct Our R&D

At the core of our work is Advanced Inclusive R&D, a model that drives high-impact, high-reward scientific rigor to push beyond known solutions with the people education was built to serve from day one: learners and educators.

We provide R&D capabilities, infrastructure, partnerships, and expertise to develop next-generation tools and approaches that keep pace with innovation and drive necessary change. This includes our multi-year, problem-driven R&D programs and our fellowships that convene diverse researcher-practitioners and fuel advances across the field.

AugmentED brings together expert teachers, researchers, and technologists to reimagine education for the AI era, developing and testing new teaching approaches and AI-powered tools to nurture every student’s potential.

Reading Reimagined

Reading Reimagined develops foundational literacy skills in students who need ongoing support tailored to their developmental stage.

Assessment for Good

Assessment for Good aims to transform assessment to deliver accurate, meaningful data that ignites instruction and fosters a more student-centered experience – at the speed of teaching and learning.

EF+Math Program

EF+Math developed and tested approaches that strengthen students’ executive function (EF) skills alongside math learning. Explore tools, products, and research in the EF+Math Resource Library.

2020–2026

Fellowships

AERDF convenes multi-disciplinary researchers and leading educators to cultivate new approaches for applying research to the real needs of learners and education systems.

What We Do

Learn how our R&D is transforming learning by creating, testing, and scaling new innovations across the field.

Are you a PreK-12 teacher, school system leader, student, caregiver, or leader of a community organization supporting learners?

We have opportunities for you to share your expertise and wisdom to help transform education.

Now live: Explore the EF+Math Resource Library, the enduring home for tools, learning products, and research insights from EF+Math (2020–2026).

OUR STORIES OF DISCOVERY & INVENTION

Learnings

New Whitepaper: Literacy Assessment and Intervention for Older Students (Featuring ROAR)

For decades a persistent belief has shaped U.S. education: students “learn to read” in K-3 and then “read to learn” in older grades. But many students are still building foundational literacy well past third grade. According to the 2024 NAEP Reading scores, approximately 70% of fourth and eighth-grade students in the United States do not meet national standards for reading proficiency. This is about more than test scores. When students lack strong literacy skills, they face barriers to learning across subjects and have fewer opportunities

Reading Reimagined

Is Structured Linguistic Phonics effective for older students? Early findings from a new Reading Reimagined study

AERDF’s Reading Reimagined R&D Program and SRI International are exploring

News

Podcast: EF+Math on NPR’s Teaching Matters

Aubrey Francisco and Michelle Tiu, Co-Executive Directors of AERDF’s EF+Math

Featured Announcements

AERDF at ISTELive+ASCD Conference

AERDF debuted our latest advancements in math, literacy, assessment, and AI at this year’s ISTE+ASCD Annual Conference.

NCTM Features AERDF EF+Math Program

Watch a video about the AERDF EF+Math Program featured at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Annual Meeting & Exposition.