Year in Review: Most-Read AIR Work 2013

Here are some of our publications from this past year—reports, research briefs, infographics and an article—that our visitors found especially insightful and interesting.

AIR researchers tackled college accountability this past year in several papers:

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“Dads are Important” infographic

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Academic Spending Versus Athletic Spending: Who Wins? AIR’s Delta Cost Project learned that most NCAA Division I athletic departments spend three to six times as much per athlete as their institutions spend to educate each student.
Higher Education Pays: But a Lot More for Some Graduates Than for Others An analysis of the earnings of recent college graduates showed that those who went to elite institutions don’t necessarily earn higher salaries than their peers.
What’s the Value of an Associate’s Degree? The Return on Investment for Graduates and Taxpayers A national review of community colleges and their graduates discovered that the median career-long earnings of someone with an associate’s degree is about $259,000 more than for high school graduates.
The Price of a Science Ph.D. found that some racial groups are more likely than their counterparts to go into debt while earning a doctorate in the sciences. 49 percent of African Americans, 36 percent of Hispanics, and 26 percent of whites and Asians owed debt upon graduation.

Most-viewed AIR Newsletter article

“Three Decades of Education Reform: Are We Still ‘A Nation at Risk’?”

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Our visual work attracted a large audience, especially on social media:

Let’s Stop HIV Together AIR developed a Facebook app that allows users to create a personalized ad encouraging friends to "stop HIV together."
“60 Minutes or More a Day” was designed for a U.S. Department of Health & Human Services report that details physical activity guidelines for children.
“The Revolving Door” illustrates 30-day readmission rates to U.S. hospitals by procedure and diagnosis.

Reports about conditions for learning and education reform were particularly popular among website visitors:

Avoid Simple Solutions and Quick Fixes looked at a multi-year effort by AIR and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to improve conditions for learning in its schools—work that increased student attendance, decreased disruptive behavior, and cut down out-of-school suspensions.
Are Personalized Learning Environments the Next Wave of K-12 Education Reform? examined 16 successful applications from Race to the Top District awards to identify lessons from pioneering grantees’ efforts to implient and scale teaching and learning innovations.
Three related papers explore the difficulties of implienting teacher value-added measures.

Most-viewed report on air.org

Early College, Early Success: Early College High School Initiative Impact Study

Rounding out our list are reports on improving children's lives in Zambia and on health concerns of Americans:

Zambia’s Child Grant Program: 24 Month Impact Report. A two-year trial evaluating a cash-transfer program saw the amount of food and clothing going to infants and families rise dramatically.
Diabetes Prevention Services: Cost Savings and the Role of Incentives found that about 28 percent of U.S. adults have several risk factors for pre-diabetes, but only one in six is aware of it.