In this blog post, Zeyu Xu discusses findings from his study in Kentucky, the first state to implement the Common Core State Standards, from the encouraging findings about student achievement during the transition from the old standards to caveats about whether the achievement gains were caused by the new ones. ...
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."
NAEP's own data shows different rates among college seniors who are proficient vs. those who are ready for college. Until achievement results for 12th grade students with a good dose of Common-Core-based education under their belts become available, says Fran Stancavage in this blog post, educators who set NAEP standards ...
In this blog post, Mark Schneider discusses the disconnect between what students and faculty expect from a college education, and how to reconcile those differences.
Recent data shows that while students from low-income families began 9th grade with high aspirations of going to college, by junior year their expectations decline considerably. In this blog post, Sakiko Ikoma and Markus Broer argue that closing the enrollment gap between low-income students and their more affluent counterparts means ...
Federal and state funding for infrastructure, workforce and economic development, and apprenticeship expansion are flowing into states and regional and local entities. Here we describe two of the primary challenges that come with this new funding and promising approaches to address them.
Some research has questioned whether taking STEM AP courses makes any difference when it comes to pursuing STEM majors in college and STEM occupations. New research led by AIR Senior Vice President and Institute Fellow George Bohrnstedt strongly contradicts those prior findings. In this Q&A, Bohrnstedt explains the findings and ...
At 21, many foster youth “age out” of financial benefits and supports from the child welfare system—before they even finish college. Given the challenges they face, it’s not surprising that only 3 to 10 percent of them earn undergraduate degrees compared with 34 percent of young adults who weren’t in ...
This blog post by Senior TA Consultants Abby Bandurraga and Gina Wells lays out the Five Elements of Effective State Apprenticeship, a framework developed by AIR through the State Apprenticeship Expansion Project.
The college admissions scandal that broke in March 2019 drew attention to the lengths that a few people go to cheat or pay their children’s way into these colleges, and to the way colleges make decisions about who gets accepted. Alexandria Walton Radford, a managing researcher at AIR and director ...