Who We Are

AIR’s Center for Applied Research in Postsecondary Education (CARPE) tackles postsecondary education’s most pressing challenges by generating actionable insights and helping the field implement effective solutions.

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What We Do

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We ground our work in practice. We leverage our extensive experience working with postsecondary institutions and partnering with practitioners, policymakers, and students to infuse our work with real-world context and nuance.

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We build the field’s capacity to improve outcomes. We work directly with key stakeholders to increase their capacity to implement evidence-based practices and transform systems.

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We apply our deep research expertise. Our experts draw on innovative methods to collect data, conduct research, and evaluate programs to drive continuous improvement.

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We share what we discover. We synthesize what we learn from practice, research, policy, and evaluation to engage and advance the field.

Bodies of Work

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Our work addresses every part of the postsecondary continuum

Diverse Partners

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We work with an array of partners, including


  • Foundations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lumina Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
  • State education agencies and K-12 school districts
  • Postsecondary systems and institutions
  • The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Center for Education Research, and National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance
  • National Science Foundation
  • National associations focused on postsecondary education