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 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. ...
School districts around the country are increasingly looking to community schools as models to both respond to ongoing youth and family needs made more poignant by the COVID-19 pandemic and as a platform for providing opportunities for positive youth development that accelerate equitable student outcomes in education, health, and employment. ...
Ensuring strong alignment between quality standards and afterschool programs requires creative thinking, planning, and collaboration. Afterschool programs that align professional development with quality standards can support staff learning and sustain continuous improvement by reinforcing professional standards and practices. ...
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. ...
Christine Kiecha is AIR’s managing director in Kenya. Her key responsibilities include acting as AIR’s point of contact for office management and business development in Kenya; working with AIR’s senior leadership to develop future business opportunities; and gathering data to provide information about social, demographic, economic and funding trends. She ...
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 ...
What type of organization structure would be most conducive to building a sustainable, integrated service delivery system?
As part of our study, we found that a variety of grantee structures may encourage a more effective service delivery system in terms of stability and coordination.
Your state has successfully designed a set of quality standards for the afterschool field, and practitioners are now using the standards across the state to improve their program practices. But are you really done? As the field advances, you may need to adapt the standards or add new components for ...
The Texas Summer Learning Study is an independent study by AIR, in collaboration with the Texas Education Agency, and with support from The Wallace Foundation. This four-year implementation study will build from research on summer learning programs to understand the use of evidence-based design principles. What are evidence-based design principles? ...