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.
During middle school, many young people, especially those from low-income communities, disengage from and consequently do not achieve in school-based STEM subjects. The STEM Interest and Engagement Project (STEM IE) studied youth interest and engagement in summer STEM camps in four focus areas.
Evidence plays a critical role in designing and implementing approaches that accelerate learning and provide all students with equal access to a quality education. This blog post describes some of what AIR has learned about the approaches in the federal agenda.
James Colyott is a senior TA consultant at AIR with over twenty years of experience in rural district and school leadership, monitoring, and improvement. Colyott is currently the project director for the Developing a Statewide School Improvement Implementation Monitoring Tool Project with the Wyoming Department of Education, the project lead ...
Since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, a greater emphasis has been placed on academic development during the afterschool hours. Research has found that students’ participation in afterschool program is beneficial to academic achievement and social adjustment. This report shares the findings of the five-year study conducted ...
The Guide for Reflecting on Instructional Depth, or GRID, helps teachers reflect on their instruction, identify areas where they can be more student-centered. The four-part video GRID series provides step-by-step guidance for determining students’ depth of mathematical justifications and who is driving those justifications. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of collecting and using data with intentionality—especially when it comes to the well-being of young people. The Every Hour Counts Measurement Framework can help out-of-school time system leaders leverage data to improve the lives of young people. ...
Amy Syvertsen is a principal researcher in AIR’s Youth, Family, and Community Development area. Dr. Syvertsen is an applied developmental scientist, and a content expert in positive youth development in childhood and adolescence with an emphasis on the developmental processes and contextual supports that undergird strong youth-adult relationships and civic ...
As a result of the Syrian conflict, Lebanon has one of the highest per capita ratios of registered refugees in the world. Despite efforts by the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education and its partners, approximately half the Syrian children of primary school age in Lebanon did not attend ...
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. ...