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.
The need for safety, support, and trusting, reciprocal relationships is especially important as we work to rebuild and return stronger than before COVID-19. This resource describes the role that afterschool and summer programs and systems can play and offers strategies for afterschool and summer programs and school leaders to work ...
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.
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. ...
In 1960, AIR launched Project Talent, the largest and most comprehensive study of high school students ever conducted in the United States. Project Talent data are now available to researchers through the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging. AIR survey methodologists worked with University of Michigan colleagues to prepare ...
During the past 20 years, the afterschool field has been held accountable in varying ways—first, on the ability to provide safe places for young people to spend time while their parents work; then, on success in helping to improve participants’ academic achievement as a supplement to the school day. This ...
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.
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. ...
As Medicare celebrates 50 years since its signing into law by President Lyndon Johnson, experts look at the challenges facing the program today. While cost and other reforms are foremost in many policymakers' minds, experts caution that reforms need to keep the program's intended beneficiaries in mind, protecting the most ...
Older adults are more likely to fear losing their mental abilities than their physical abilities. But a growing body of research suggests that, for most people, mental decline isn’t inevitable and may even be reversible. It is now becoming clear that cognitive health and dementia prevention must be lifelong pursuits, ...