Postsecondary Education

AIR tackles postsecondary education’s most pressing challenges by generating actionable insights and helping the field implement effective solutions. Our work addresses every part of the postsecondary continuum including transition to postsecondary education, postsecondary education, and transition out of postsecondary education.
 

Our Work

See our Center for Applied Research in Postsecondary Education (CARPE) to learn more about our approach, areas of expertise, partners, projects, experts, and news.

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Contact
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Alexandria Walton Radford

Senior Director, Center for Applied Research in Postsecondary Education (CARPE)
Related Topics
Education
Related Work
Supervisor and trainee in factory

Coordinating Skills-Based Hiring and Competency-Based Education Practices

28 Feb 2024
 Implementing skills-based hiring practices can expand the talent pool, improve staff retention, and increase diversity.Today’s economy is marked by the rapid evolution of technology leading to labor shortages and evolving skill needs across the labor market. Finding and retaining a skilled workforce is key to an organization’s growth, yet many ...
Diverse Group of College Students on Campus

Exploring Geographic Variation in Equitable Postsecondary Value Among U.S. Community Colleges

Community colleges serve many critical purposes for residents within their local service areas by providing relatively low-cost, open-access postsecondary education and workforce-focused training. Given the hyperlocal enrollment of community college students and their primarily economic reasons for choosing to enroll in college, place-based measures of economic value are increasingly important ...
College students studying in library

Research on the Perspectives of Community College Noncredit Students

AIR is working with Rutgers Education and Employment Research Center to carry out a qualitative study on students students enrolled in noncredit workforce courses and programs at community colleges and their understanding of different program options and their economic returns.
Young adult students in class

A Study of Post-9/11 GI Bill Student Outcomes

AIR is using a newly merged dataset to release the first-ever series of reports on the the Post-9/11 GI Bill outcomes for veterans across all branches of the military. Specifically, our reports will examine the extent to which eligible veterans are using benefits and the barriers to doing so.
Young women in computer science class

The Impact of Emerging Technologies on Employers, Workers, Job Seekers, and Students

27 Nov 2023
To support the future workforce, AIR is not only evaluating how emerging technologies impact the integrity of learning, but also how these technologies can be leveraged to improve learning within postsecondary education institutions and workplaces. Through several projects and initiatives, AIR is committed to exploring the complex inter-relationships, and bridging ...
Older African American graduate in cap and gown

Postsecondary Competency-Based Education

11 Oct 2023
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. ...
African American Boy Studying with Father at Home

Parenting Adult Learners’ Experiences in Higher Education

Postsecondary administrators interested in serving parenting adult learners need to know more about them and the supports they need in their pursuit and completion of postsecondary credentials. This project leverages new data from AIR’s recent survey of adult learners and one-on-one interviews with a subset of parenting adult learners. ...
Professor handshaking with graduates

More to the Retention Story: Exploring Second- to Third-Year Retention at 4-Year Colleges and Universities

21 Aug 2023
Higher education focuses on “first-year retention” (measured from fall to fall) as the key metric indicating whether students are on a path toward their degree. This piece explores “second- to third- year retention,” tracking students who did enroll during their second year (and therefore are “retained” in official metrics) and ...
Women working at a computer

Postsecondary CBE: A Primer for Policymakers

27 Jul 2023
In a new brief, Postsecondary CBE: A Primer for Policymakers, the Center for Higher Education Policy and Practice (CHEPP) and AIR outline what competency-based education (CBE) is, how it works, the potential benefits to learners, and how institutional practice is driven by federal higher education policy. ...
U.S. Supreme Court building

The Future of Affirmative Action in College Admissions

13 Jun 2023
By the end of June, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule in two cases that will determine whether colleges and universities can consider race in making admissions decisions. Alexandria Walton Radford, senior director of AIR’s Center for Applied Research in Postsecondary Education, is an expert in college admissions. ...