Both the formal and informal education communities are increasingly focused on fostering opportunities for social and emotional learning (SEL) and the link between SEL and youth outcomes. This self-reflection tool is designed to help afterschool program staff reflect upon their own social and emotional competencies and their ability to support ...
Dia Jackson supports states, school districts, and educators with multi-tiered systems of support and special education best practices. In this Q&A she talks about how she uses evidence to help teachers understand student needs and why it's important to study education and equity in tandem.
Researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and funders are increasingly aware of the powerful potential for summertime experiences and the need to design, implement, and continuously improve summertime experiences for all.
Effective and thoughtful planning is the first step in developing afterschool quality standards. In this phase, you will build a strong case for establishing quality standards. In the sections that follow, we outline the principal components of planning to develop quality standards.
Afterschool staff working with youth are essential partners in any program’s efforts to implement quality programming. Ultimately, strong relationships are key to whether youth feel safe and can authentically engage with peers and adults. Building staff members’ capacity to strengthen relationships and align program offerings to quality standards will help ...
After test scores on a state language arts assessment at P.S. 52 Sheepshead Bay School in Brooklyn were unsatisfactory, the school's principal searched for a way to improve academic outcomes for his students. Partnering with AIR, the school used response to intervention, a research-based framework that uses data-based decision-making and ...
The expanded learning field continues to bring multiple stakeholders together to advance program quality and research. This article from the Journal of Expanded Learning Opportunities features a dialogue on the topic of program quality in expanded learning programs between Michael Funk, afterschool division director for the California Department of Education, ...
The start of the 2020–21 academic year illustrated the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of school-aged students and their families, and has heightened the need to catalyze the systems that support them. AIR partnered with Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) and the Partnership for ...
Matthew Vinson is a senior researcher working on out-of-school time (OST) initiatives with at AIR. Vinson is the project lead for OST evaluation efforts in New Jersey and Ohio, as well as analysis support for OST evaluations in Texas, Oregon, and Washington. He is the outcomes evaluation lead for the ...
Listen to the first season of LAC Reads Out Loud, a podcast, created by the LAC Reads Capacity Program, focused on raising awareness among different key audiences about the importance of foundational literacy for children in Central America and the Caribbean.