The American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonprofit,

nonpartisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

behavioral and

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of s ...

research, evaluation and technical assistance organization based in Arlington, Virginia. One of the world's largest social science research organizations, AIR has more than 1,800 staff in locations across the United States and abroad. In 2010 and 2011, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' selected AIR as one of the top ten nonprofit firms in the

Washington metropolitan area The Washington metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the National Capital Region, is the metropolitan area centered on Washington, D.C. The metropolitan area includes all of Washington, D.C. and parts of the states of Maryland, Virgi ...

History

AIR's founder, John C. Flanagan, a pioneer in aviation psychology, is known for developing the

critical incident technique The critical incident technique (or CIT) is a set of procedures used for collecting direct observations of human behavior that have critical significance and meet methodically defined criteria. These observations are then kept track of as incidents, ...

, an innovative method for screening and selecting personnel. While working for the

U.S. Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Flanagan developed CIT as an aptitude test to identify potential combat pilots. Later, the technique was adapted for other industries, and CIT is still a model for numerous organizations and researchers. Flanagan established American Institutes for Research in 1946. He focused on workforce education research and launched

Project Talent Project Talent is a national longitudinal study that first surveyed over 440,000 American high school students in 1960. At the time, it was the largest and most comprehensive study of high school students ever conducted in the United States. Desi ...

, a

longitudinal study A longitudinal study (or longitudinal survey, or panel study) is a research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables (e.g., people) over short or long periods of time (i.e., uses longitudinal data). It is often a type of ob ...

following 400,000 high school students across the U.S., which has continued for the past 50 years and provided data for hundreds of researchers and publications. Charles Murray, the controversial political scientist, worked at AIR, and left after determining his work was not making a difference. At the end of 2019, AIR sold its student assessment division to Cambium Learning Group, Inc. In 2020, AIR acquired IMPAQ, LLC (including subsidiary Maher & Maher), an
Kimetrica

Mission statement

"AIR's mission is to generate and use rigorous evidence that contributes to a better, more equitable world."

Areas of work

AIR conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance, both domestically and internationally, in the areas of health, education and workforce productivity. Specific areas include early childhood; P-K-12 education, including teacher, school and district leadership; juvenile justice; mental health and well-being; higher education and career readiness; adult learning and workforce issues; chronic and infectious diseases; patient and family engagement; trauma informed care; healthcare knowledge translation; refugee and migrant populations; and social and emotional learning, among others. Some of the work Flanagan and AIR are known for includes:

, the largest and most comprehensive study of high school students ever conducted in the United States. Data from Project Talent is now being used to conduct research on aging and dementia; core evaluations for U.S. Department of Education programs; technical expertise on implementing the

Every Student Succeeds Act The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is a US law passed in December 2015 that governs the United States K–12 public education policy. The law replaced its predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), and modified but did not eliminate pr ...

(ESSA) and how federal funds are used; Project A, the largest personnel survey in the history of the U.S. Army; and fully or partially-funded federal projects, including Regional Education Labs (RELs) and Comprehensive Centers, National Center for Family Homelessness, Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER), College and Career Readiness and Success Center, Center for English Language Learners, among others.

Leadership

Education researcher David Myers is AIR's president and CEO and serves on its board of directors. Myers was senior vice president and chief strategy officer at

Mathematica Policy Research Mathematica, formerly Mathematica Policy Research, is an American research organization and consulting company headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey. The company provides data science, social science, and technological services for social polic ...

prior to joining AIR. The twelve-member

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit orga ...

is led by chair Patricia B. Gurin, professor emerita of social psychology and women's studies at

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and vice chair Lawrence D. Bobo, a professor of social sciences at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

References

External links

* {{authority control Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C. Research institutes in Washington, D.C. Educational testing and assessment organizations Think tanks established in 1946 1946 establishments in the United States