Early data from iCitizen’s national survey reveals a sharp generational divide, with 18–34-year-olds divided 48% to 52% on free-market capitalism vs. socialism.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — While a strong majority of Americans continue to favor free-market capitalism over socialism, a deep generational divide is emerging among younger voters, according to early polling data released today by icitizen.com.

Among more than 1,500 respondents surveyed in icitizen’s ongoing national economic poll, 62% overall rejected socialism as a replacement for capitalism. However, support for socialism jumps significantly among younger demographics: 48% of adults aged 18–34 supported socialism as an alternative, compared to just 29% of respondents aged 50 and older.

“While national toplines show broad support for free-market principles, the underlying demographic data tells a much more complex story,” said Tony Harkin, CEO of icitizen.com. “Younger generations are questioning traditional economic structures at dramatically higher rates than their parents and grandparents. As we approach the upcoming elections, this generational split on core economic philosophy could prove pivotal for policy debates.”

Key Findings

The Youth Divide: Adults aged 18–34 were almost evenly split, with 48% supporting socialism as a replacement for capitalism and 52% opposing.Partisan Consensus & Divergence: Opposition to socialism is strongest among Republicans (96%) and Independents (72%). Support remains heavily concentrated among Democrats (73%).Gender Gap: Women reported higher support for socialism (39%) than men (27%).

Methodology & Poll Details

The icitizen “Capitalism vs. Socialism” survey went live on September 3, 2026, and remains open for public participation through October 3, 2026. Data in this preliminary release reflects responses gathered through September 15, 2026 (N = 1,564). Note: Data represents a weighted online opt-in sample.

To view real-time updated results visit: https://icitizen.com/ 

About icitizen

icitizen is a civic engagement platform dedicated to connecting citizens, elected officials, and organizations through transparent polling and data insight tools.

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SOURCE iCitizen

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Experts from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) will present at several sessions during the 2026 Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE) conference. The conference will be held September 23-26, 2026, at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront in Baltimore, MD.

AIR experts will share their work across a variety of topics, including work-based learning, high-quality instructional materials; individualized math instruction; digital learning programs; and more. Built around the theme, “Education and Public Trust: Evidence and Accountability in a Changing Landscape,” the conference will bring together education researchers, policy leaders, and professionals from around the country.

AIR is a Silver Conference Sponsor and will have a booth available in the Exhibitor Hall. Sessions featuring AIR experts and their work are listed below (all times are in Eastern Daylight Time). Learn more about all conference presentations and activities on the conference website. 

Wednesday, September 23

9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Workshop: Matching Methods for Multilevel Data in Education Research: A Practical Guide and Illustration of Approaches in R

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Laurel AB

AIR Authors: Jordan Rickles, Alberto Guzman-Alvarez, and Qi Zhang 

2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.

Paper Presentation: Impacts of Work-Based Learning Programs on Student Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Laurel CD

AIR Presenters/Authors: Kelly Reese and Susan Therriault 

Paper Presentation: From Foundational Skills to Community College: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Illinois Bridge Programs for Adult Learners

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Laurel CD

AIR Presenters/Authors: Neha Nanda, Amani Talwar, Roman Ruiz, Jessica Stockham, and Oshin Khachikian 

4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. 

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Harborside Foyer

Poster Session: Motivation and Engagement Profiles in Middle School Social Studies and Their Instructional Implications

AIR Presenters/Authors: Alida Hudson, Lauren Artzi, Patrick Steele, Hannah Keepers, and Isabelle D’Souza

Poster Session: Ready Set Succeed: Examining the Impacts and Costs of a Kindergarten Transition Program

AIR Presenters/Authors: Leanne Elliott, Rachel Feldman, Danielle Riser, Lara Iqbal, Eboni Howard, and Hans Bos

Poster Session: Teaching Tomorrow’s Skills Today: Insights from the Teach Tech Kentucky Project

AIR Presenters/Authors: Laura Buckley, Rachel Garrett, and Eben Witherspoon

Poster Session: Building Trust in Educational Evidence: A Study of Reporting Bias in Impact Evaluations

AIR Presenter/Author: Joesph Taylor 

Thursday, September 24

9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Paper Presentation: The Impact of Teacher Professional Learning Designed to Support Effective Use of High-Quality Instructional Materials

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Harbor D

AIR Presenters/Authors: Andrew Wayne, Sami Kitmitto, Catherine Jacques, Cheryl Graczewski, and Alice Hung

Paper Presentation: From Interviews to Evidence: Using Large Language Models Responsibly in Program Evaluation

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Laurel AB

AIR Presenters/Authors: Ruhan Circi, Burhan Ogut, Tabitha Tezil, Eben Witherspoon, and Amelia Vasquez 

10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Harborside Foyer

Poster Session: Building Validity for AI-Supported Formative Assessment: Evidence From Phase 1 of the ADAPT-AI Project

AIR Presenters/Authors: Bo Zhu and Margarita Olivera-Aguilar

Poster Session: The Associations Between Preparation and Pathways and the Composition, Distribution, and Stability of Special Educators

AIR Presenter/Author: Allison Gilmour and Roddy Theobald

Poster Session: Research on Using Simulation to Practice Evidence-Based Math Instruction

AIR Presenters/Authors: Erin McCopp, Melissa Yisak, Rachel Garrett, Toni Smith, and Jasmine James

Poster Session: Of ‘Dear Colleague’ Letters and Federal Injunctions: How Federal DEI Actions Influence Teachers’ Use of Culturally Responsive Practices

AIR Presenters/Authors: Laura Brady

Poster Session: Teaching with AI: Building Evidence for Professional Learning That Supports Responsible Classroom Integration

AIR Presenters/Authors: Rebecca Bergey, Ryan Eisner, Tiffini Pruit- Britton, Dena Slanda, Fei Tan, Kelsey Woodrick, and Isaac Kaplan

Poster Session: Synthesizing Evidence on Standalone Digital Learning Programs in Math and Science to Inform K-12 Instructional Strategies

AIR Presenters/Authors: Qi Zhang and Kamal Middlebrook

3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Panel: URE Moderated Discussion — Trusted by Whom? Rethinking Public Trust in Education Research

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Harbor E

AIR Organizer & Panel Chair: Rachel Garrett
AIR Presenters/Authors: Joseph Taylor and Rachel Garrett 

Friday, September 25

9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Panel: RM Moderated Discussion — Supporting Early-Career Education Researchers

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Harbor B

AIR Presenter/Author: Danielle Ferguson

Paper Presentation: Propensity Score Matching in Multilevel Educational Settings: A Review and Guide for Applied Researchers

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Laurel AB

AIR Presenters/Authors: Jordan Rickles, Alberto Guzman-Alvarez and Qi Zhang

Paper Presentation: The Benefits and Costs of Educational Inclusion: Evidence from an Evaluation of the Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools Program

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Galena

AIR Presenters/Authors: Jesse Levin, Rachel Feldman, Katie Laird, and Brad Salvato 

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Keynote Panel: The Education Research Ecosystem: What Would it Take for Evidence to Matter More?

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Harborside C Ballroom

AIR Convenor & Panel Chair: Dan Goldhaber 

1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Harborside Foyer

Poster Session: In-the-Pipeline: Individualized Math Instruction with The Modern Classrooms Project – Preliminary Analyses

AIR Presenters/Authors: Robert Nathenson, Xiaying Zheng, Erin McCopp, and Toni Smith

Poster Session: Using Retrospective Pretest Items in Educational Program 

AIR Presenters/Authors: Diana Oh and Margarita Olivera-Aguilar

Poster Session: Designing and Evaluating AI‑Assisted Qualitative Analysis Workflows for Education Impact Studies

AIR Presenters/Authors: Graham Chickering, Billie Day, and Garry Davis 

2:15 p.m.

Panel: OSS Invited Moderated Discussion — School Accountability and Turnaround in a Time of Federal Limbo

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Galena

AIR Presenter/Author: Drew Atchison and Kerstin Le Floch 

5:15 p.m.

Paper Presentation: Nudged, But at What Cost? Assessing the State of Economic Evaluation in a Systematic Review of Postsecondary Nudge Interventions

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Laurel CD

AIR Presenters/Authors: Chris Brooks, Melissa Rodgers, Charleen Gust, Amanda Danks, and Megan Austin

Paper Presentation: Scaling Effective Educational Interventions

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Kent AB

AIR Presenters/Authors: Yinmei Wan 

Saturday, September 26

8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

Paper Presentation: Student Engagement as a Pathway Linking Teacher Support to Mathematics Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling Review

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Laurel CD

AIR Presenters/Authors: Qi Zhang and Yibing Li

Paper Presentation: Student Perceptions of and Performance in Math: Effects of Middle School Access to Real-World Math Lessons

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Laurel CD

AIR Presenters/Authors: Jordan Rickles, Fei Tan, Santiago Nicotera, and Amelia Auchstetter

10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

Paper Presentation: Evaluation Findings of the Equity Leader Accelerator Program

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Laurel AB

AIR Presenters/Authors: Martyna Citkowicz, Sarah Mae Olivar, Sarah Peko-Spicer, Jasmine James, Sonica Dhillon, and Jill Bowdon 

Paper Presentation: Impacts of a Rural, Community-Based Summer Literacy Program on Early Elementary Struggling Readers’ Outcomes: Evidence from a Quasi-Experimental Study

Location: Baltimore Marriott Waterfront – Kent AB

AIR Presenters/Authors: Patrick Rich, Karen Manship, Aleksandra Holod, and Alberto Guzman-Alvarez

About AIR
Established in 1946, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of education, health, and the workforce. With headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, AIR has offices across the U.S. and abroad. For more information, visit www.air.org.

Contact: Dana Tofig, dtofig@air.org

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SOURCE American Institutes for Research

Open-source artificial intelligence model combines diverse lunar datasets to support scientific analysis of the Moon

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Universities Space Research Association (USRA) contributed planetary science expertise, lunar dataset development, and scientific evaluation to the newly released NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model, an open-source artificial intelligence (AI) model designed to help researchers analyze the large and diverse datasets collected by lunar missions.

Developed through a collaboration led by NASA and IBM Research, the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model was pretrained from scratch using SomBench, a multimodal lunar dataset containing nearly two million co-registered data bundles spanning 11 modalities and two spatial scales. The model brings together complementary information about the lunar surface, including imagery, topography, illumination geometry, thermophysical properties, mineralogy, radar, gravity, and other geologic and environmental data.

USRA’s contribution to the project was provided by Dr. Rachel Slank, an associate scientist with USRA’s Science and Technology Institute, on assignment at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. She served as a planetary science subject-matter expert on the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model team. Slank worked across both the science and modeling teams, helping connect lunar science priorities and the physical characteristics of planetary datasets with decisions about model development, applications, and evaluation.

The NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model was evaluated across three downstream benchmarks: crater detection at both regional and meter scales, segmentation of irregular mare patches (IMPs), and regression of lunar polar ice prospectivity. Together, these applications assess the model’s performance across a diverse range of lunar science challenges, from identifying impact features and mapping unusual volcanic landforms to integrating environmental datasets associated with the stability and potential distribution of polar volatiles.

Across all three benchmarks, the pretrained NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model matched or outperformed comparison models based on ImageNet pretraining, as well as an architecturally identical model initialized without lunar pretraining. The study also demonstrated particularly strong label efficiency in crater detection, suggesting that the representations learned through lunar pretraining can reduce the amount of task-specific labeled data required for certain applications.

The multimodal design of the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model allows it to learn relationships among different types of lunar observations rather than treating each dataset independently. The model was designed to operate across both regional-scale Wide Angle Camera (WAC) observations and meter-scale Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) data while incorporating information such as terrain, illumination geometry, and other lunar surface properties.

By releasing the pretrained model, fine-tuning code, and benchmark datasets openly, the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model team aims to provide the planetary science and AI communities with a reusable foundation for developing new lunar research applications.

A major component of this work was the collaborative development of SomBench, the dataset used both to pretrain the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model and to support standardized evaluation of lunar machine learning (ML) applications.

SomBench contains two complementary components: a core multi-instrument dataset that serves as the pretraining corpus for the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model and a suite of application benchmarks used to evaluate ML methods on representative lunar science problems. The benchmark suite addresses three broad science themes: impact processes, volcanic history, and polar volatiles.

As part of that effort, Slank led development of the high-resolution Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) NAC crater benchmark, manually identifying more than 49,000 lunar craters. The resulting dataset uses high-resolution lunar imagery together with co-registered digital terrain models to evaluate crater detection at meter-scale resolution. She also contributed to the broader SomBench datasets and science applications and provided extensive scientific review of both the SomBench study and the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model study.

“One of the biggest challenges was bringing together lunar datasets that span very different instruments and spatial resolutions (1m to 20km per pixel) while still preserving the scientific value of each dataset,” said Dr. Slank. “Because I worked across both the science and modeling teams, I could help make sure those differences were considered as the data was brought together and used to train and evaluate the foundation model. I can’t wait to see what new science researchers will be able to do with the help of the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model!”

The NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model and associated datasets are available through Hugging Face.

NASA announcement:

https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/artificial-intelligence-lunar-foundation-model/

IBM announcement:

https://newsroom.ibm.com/2026-09-10-ibm-and-nasa-release-open-source-ai-model-to-support-lunar-exploration

About USRA 

Founded in 1969, under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences at the request of the U.S. Government, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is a nonprofit corporation chartered to advance space-related science, technology, and engineering. USRA operates scientific institutes and facilities and conducts other major research and educational programs under federal funding. It engages the university community and employs in-house scientific leadership, innovative research and development, and project management expertise.
More information about USRA is available at www.usra.edu.

PR Contact:
Suraiya Farukhi
sfarukhi@usra.edu
443-812-6945

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SOURCE Universities Space Research Association