Competency-based education makes student mastery of learning goals—rather than seat time—the metric to determine student credit and progression. Take a closer look at how schools implement competency-based education, and how it is related to what students need to learn effectively.
In a longitudinal, quasi-experimental study that spanned more than a decade, AIR found that attending a high school with an explicit focus on deeper learning resulted in positive short-term outcomes, but few longer-term outcomes. In this Q&A, AIR Principal Researcher Kristina Zeiser and Senior Researcher Catherine Bitter share insights about ...
A new book, edited and authored by experts from AIR and their colleagues, presents comprehensive strategies and tools to help create strong conditions for learning in schools that can lead to excellent and equitable student outcomes.
Parents, teachers, schools, districts, states, and especially students all want schools that prepare graduates to thrive in the 21st century. In this blog post, Anne Mishkind asks what it means to be "college and career ready."
Exclusionary school discipline policies once instituted to prevent serious infractions have crept into discipline practices for minor issues. Youth who participated in a roundtable on the subject contend that it limits opportunities to learn and compromises academic achievement; is applied disproportionately and subjectively; and deprives students of the ...
How can we better support young people as they learn the skills they need to succeed in school, work, and life? These resources focus on social and emotional development outside the classroom.
Iris Daruwala is a senior researcher at AIR, where she works with foundations and federal, state, and local agencies on research and evaluation projects. Her work is primarily focused on understanding how educational interventions and reforms can reduce inequities among marginalized student groups and support whole child well-being. As an ...
Governors are called upon to lead and improve their states' education systems, addressing a number of diverse and changing issues. In this open letter, AIR's Angela Minnici, director of the Education Policy Center and the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders, sets out seven action steps for 2015 to help ...
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. ...
Manolya Tanyu is a community psychologist and prevention researcher with 15 years of expertise in evaluation of school- and community-based interventions to prevent risk behaviors and promote youth development and well-being. A core aspect of her work is understanding the interrelationships across the settings (i.e., human serving systems, communities, schools, ...