The U.S. Department of Education commissioned AIR to conduct a national study to evaluate how adult education operates at the state and local levels, including who adult education providers are, the services they provide, and the challenges they face. Stephanie Cronen answered some questions about adult education and what the ...
In this blog post, Matthew Soldner argues that, as Congress works on reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the need for far better research and access to federal student aid data should be high on its agenda.
Youth engagement is a “win-win proposition”—it benefits young people, adults, and organizations. AIR interviewed six youth development organizations in Chicago to learn about their youth engagement strategies. This brief highlights five youth engagement strategies.
Making college more affordable for students has become a top priority in the United States. But students typically pay far less than what it costs colleges and universities to educate students. These four briefs delve into the costs for higher education institutions and the financial costs for students in obtaining ...
Jessica Newman is a senior researcher who leads research, evaluation, and capacity-building initiatives in collaboration with a variety of national, state, and local entities. Her work is primarily focused on positive youth development and social and emotional learning (SEL) in supportive learning environments, including out-of-school time and informal learning settings. ...
We have little information about the adults who work in out-of-school time settings. AIR is conducting the Power of Us Workforce Survey with a constellation of partners and with support from the Wallace Foundation to learn more.
Postsecondary competency-based education (CBE) is receiving considerable attention from advocates, colleges, and policymakers as a way to help more students complete high-quality postsecondary credentials in less time and at a lower cost—but we're just beginning to build rigorous evidence to understand whether CBE programs are fulfilling those value propositions. ...
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.
Given persistent failure rates and mounting student debt, how prepared students are to enter and succeed in college is suddenly everyone’s business. According to Mark Schneider, in this blog post, ACT data shows many students ready to leave for college are not ready academically in at least one area. ...
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.