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.
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.
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 develops foundational literacy skills in students who need ongoing support tailored to their developmental stage.
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 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
AERDF convenes multi-disciplinary researchers and leading educators to cultivate new approaches for applying research to the real needs of learners and education systems.
Learn how our R&D is transforming learning by creating, testing, and scaling new innovations across the field.
We have opportunities for you to share your expertise and wisdom to help transform education.
AERDF’s Reading Reimagined R&D Program and SRI International are exploring a promising way to strengthen reading skills for older elementary and middle school students: structured linguistic phonics (SLP).
The Advanced Education Research & Development Fund (AERDF), a national nonprofit
After five years of groundbreaking work to transform mathematics education,
AERDF debuted our latest advancements in math, literacy, assessment, and AI at this year’s ISTE+ASCD Annual Conference.
Watch a video about the AERDF EF+Math Program featured at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Annual Meeting & Exposition.
