The Massachusetts Safe and Successful Youth Initiative (SSYI) is a multifaceted, community-based strategy that combines public health and public safety approaches to eliminate serious violence among proven-risk, urban youth ages 17–24. The most recent implementation and impact study illuminated a clear distinction between cities with SSYI relative to similarly violent ...
Many students who don’t have the money, time or inclination to pursue a bachelor’s degree are looking at the associate’s degree as a way into the labor market. And, according to Mark Schneider in this blog post, if they make good choices about where to go and what to study, ...
Of all the talks that parents should have with their children, a frank conversation about college costs and debt should be the least uncomfortable. In this blog post, Donna Desrochers discusses the importance of talking with teenagers about real college costs and the real life consequences of one of the ...
The growth of the postsecondary competency-based education (CBE) ecosystem is contingent on CBE programs demonstrating that they fulfill core value propositions for students, including improving access, success, quality, and affordability. To support program leaders and researchers in building evidence about student outcomes in CBE programs, AIR and the Institute for ...
A networked improvement community is a collaborative research partnership that uses the principles of improvement science within networks of organizations to learn from varied implementation of new ideas across contexts. This report aims to guide other researchers, state education agency leaders, and district leaders as they establish networked improvement communities ...
The initiatives to enhance adult learning program accountability and assessment systems of the following states are described in this paper: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Oregon, Texas, Washington, West Virginia.
This study linked school-reported transcript data to student item responses on the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to examine the relationships between high school coursework and end-of-high school mathematics achievement. The findings showed that high-level coursework in mathematics and science were significantly related to mathematics achievement even ...
Since its inception, the Safe and Successful Youth Initiative has shown promise for reducing violent crime at the community level in Massachusetts. Most recently, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services contracted with AIR and WestEd to evaluate SSYI at the individual level of impact. ...
In an era of increasingly rigorous state standards, teachers at all grade levels face heightened expectations to deepen their students’ understanding of mathematical concepts. This report examines the impact of content-intensive professional development on teachers’ math content knowledge, their instructional practice, and their students’ achievement. ...
The First 5 LA Family Literacy Initiative is a comprehensive program to promote language and literacy development, parenting knowledge and skills, and economic self-sufficiency among low-income families in Los Angeles County. Findings from the eight-year evaluation of this Family Literacy Initiative have shown significant growth in language and literacy skills ...