U.S. businesses are facing challenges filling so-called “middle-skills” jobs in trades, telecommunications, health care, IT, and similar professions. Career and Technical Education (CTE) is an existing and promising pathway that can address this gap.
In this brief, AIR researchers offer a potential pathway to understanding how learning and development happen in quality afterschool and summer programs. This pathway emphasizes three key competencies—relationship skills, a sense of agency, and identity development—that research suggests can facilitate learning and development in other areas. ...
The best afterschool programs do two things: they engage students in fun activities that create a desire to learn, and they build on what students are learning during the school day to extend the knowledge they already have. This online toolkit provides resources for developing fun, innovative, and academically enriching ...
In a new brief, Postsecondary CBE: A Primer for Policymakers, the Center for Higher Education Policy and Practice (CHEPP) and AIR outline what competency-based education (CBE) is, how it works, the potential benefits to learners, and how institutional practice is driven by federal higher education policy. ...
The 1989–2003 civil war disrupted all aspects of Liberian society, government services, and daily life, and the country’s education system was no exception. The Liberian government has made considerable progress since the war ended in 2003, but the education sector continues to suffer from insufficient funding, a limited pool of ...
The impacts of climate change are already affecting the health, economic well-being, and security of people across the globe. In this Q&A, Principal Economist Juan Bonilla describes AIR’s efforts to help governments and policymakers mitigate these effects and reduce the growing inequities that climate change can exacerbate. ...
To support the future workforce, AIR is not only evaluating how emerging technologies impact the integrity of learning, but also how these technologies can be leveraged to improve learning within postsecondary education institutions and workplaces. Through several projects and initiatives, AIR is committed to exploring the complex inter-relationships, and bridging ...
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.
AIR’s work in civic learning draws on the diverse content and methodological expertise of AIR staff and the collaborations we form with clients and partners. Our research and technical assistance cuts across several areas of civic learning.
This brief highlights recent trends in athletic and academic spending at public Division I colleges and universities, which show that athletic departments spend far more per athlete than institutions spend to educate the average student—typically three to six times as much.