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Author: Laura Melissa Reynolds Publisher: ISBN: Category : Student aid Languages : en Pages : 324
Book Description
The affordability of higher education is an increasing challenge for individuals and families in America. A student's chance of going to college and actually receiving their degree continues to be closely associated with their economic situation, as well as that of their family. The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between student financial aid and undergraduate degree completion to evaluate the impact of different sources of student financial aid on persistence and degree completion. Data used in this research is from the Linked Longitudinal Administrative Data Set (LLADS), which includes data from three different sources: the Enhanced Missouri Student Achievement Study (EMSAS), the ACT Student Assessment data file, and student financial aid data provided by the Missouri Student Assistance Resource Services (MOSTARS). The sample is made up of first-time, first-semester freshmen students from six Missouri institutions of higher education. A longitudinal study was conducted using the sample of three freshman cohorts. The cohorts were followed for five academic years. Persistence for the respective year of analysis was used as a dependent variable and separate logistic analysis were run for each year. To analyze student degree completion, two dependent variables were created and two different logistic regression analyses were run. Independent variables for the study have been grouped into five constructs: (1) Demographic Characteristics; (2) Major/Academic Performance; (3) Family Income; (4) Institution Type; and last (5) Financial Aid. Results suggest that federal government intervention in the financing of higher education through policy is important. Without the federal government's intervention, it is possible that only high-income groups will be able to afford a college education. The affordability gap is evident from the findings of this study with the lower family income categories analyzed demonstrating an increasingly negative relationship with persistence when compared with the highest family income category of greater than $100,000, as income categories decrease. From the results of this study, frontloading grants may be a good idea. The low-income students who are receiving need-based aid in the beginning years of enrollment are not as likely to persist as those receiving the aid in the later years of college. Perhaps increasing the funding in early years, or frontloading would increase the likelihood of these students persisting to their third and fourth years of college, because most students who drop out of college tend to do so within the first two years, often due to fear of high debt accumulation. In this study subsidized loans were found to have a significant positive effect on year-to-year persistence and unsubsidized loans were found to have a positive effect on persisting to the fifth year of school. For many qualified high school graduates, the thought of relying on loans may discourage enrollment in a postsecondary institution, especially among the students from low-income families. If students view the debt involved with funding a college education as a better investment choice their decisions to enroll and persist are likely to increase.
Author: Laura Melissa Reynolds Publisher: ISBN: Category : Student aid Languages : en Pages : 324
Book Description
The affordability of higher education is an increasing challenge for individuals and families in America. A student's chance of going to college and actually receiving their degree continues to be closely associated with their economic situation, as well as that of their family. The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between student financial aid and undergraduate degree completion to evaluate the impact of different sources of student financial aid on persistence and degree completion. Data used in this research is from the Linked Longitudinal Administrative Data Set (LLADS), which includes data from three different sources: the Enhanced Missouri Student Achievement Study (EMSAS), the ACT Student Assessment data file, and student financial aid data provided by the Missouri Student Assistance Resource Services (MOSTARS). The sample is made up of first-time, first-semester freshmen students from six Missouri institutions of higher education. A longitudinal study was conducted using the sample of three freshman cohorts. The cohorts were followed for five academic years. Persistence for the respective year of analysis was used as a dependent variable and separate logistic analysis were run for each year. To analyze student degree completion, two dependent variables were created and two different logistic regression analyses were run. Independent variables for the study have been grouped into five constructs: (1) Demographic Characteristics; (2) Major/Academic Performance; (3) Family Income; (4) Institution Type; and last (5) Financial Aid. Results suggest that federal government intervention in the financing of higher education through policy is important. Without the federal government's intervention, it is possible that only high-income groups will be able to afford a college education. The affordability gap is evident from the findings of this study with the lower family income categories analyzed demonstrating an increasingly negative relationship with persistence when compared with the highest family income category of greater than $100,000, as income categories decrease. From the results of this study, frontloading grants may be a good idea. The low-income students who are receiving need-based aid in the beginning years of enrollment are not as likely to persist as those receiving the aid in the later years of college. Perhaps increasing the funding in early years, or frontloading would increase the likelihood of these students persisting to their third and fourth years of college, because most students who drop out of college tend to do so within the first two years, often due to fear of high debt accumulation. In this study subsidized loans were found to have a significant positive effect on year-to-year persistence and unsubsidized loans were found to have a positive effect on persisting to the fifth year of school. For many qualified high school graduates, the thought of relying on loans may discourage enrollment in a postsecondary institution, especially among the students from low-income families. If students view the debt involved with funding a college education as a better investment choice their decisions to enroll and persist are likely to increase.
Author: Wonsun Ryu Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 362
Book Description
College affordability is vital to college access and success. The college affordability issue is very salient in the context of Texas higher education, particularly at four-year public institutions because of tuition increases caused by tuition deregulation since 2003. Although students primarily utilize federal aid to reduce the cost of college education, state-level financial aid also plays a critical role in shaping college affordability for all students but especially low-income students. However, extant research does not offer clear evidence of how state-supported financial aid affects student outcomes in Texas, particularly for offsetting college costs. As a result, policy debates over the value of state-supported financial aid at the state capitol are missing key empirical evidence. Using statewide administrative data from the Texas Education Research Center and applied longitudinal data analytic methods, this study investigates how state-supported financial aid impacts baccalaureate degree completion and whether the effects vary across income status and race. Conceptualizing that the chances of graduation heavily depend on financial support as well as individual ability to pay for college and assuming that the impact of student aid on degree completion is not uniform but varies across different groups of students by income status and race, this study seeks to answer two research questions: (1) How does state-supported financial aid, broken down by programs of financial aid, impact baccalaureate degree completion? (2) How do the effects of state-supported financial aid on baccalaureate degree completion vary across income status and race? Results from various analyses on the sample of first-time, resident students who began in Texas’ public four-year institutions in 2011-2012 bolster support for the student responsiveness literature emphasizing the role state-supported financial aid can play in promoting students’ baccalaureate degree completion. Findings also show variation in the effects of state-supported financial aid on baccalaureate degree completion across programs and student characteristics such as income status and race. The findings suggest that it is necessary to explore effective strategies to increase student outcomes and reduce the inequality in educational opportunity across students by utilizing financial aid where in theory the chances of graduation heavily depend on financial resources to pay for college. Ultimately, the role of state-supported financial aid coupled with other financial resources is vital to ensure college affordability and student success in an era of rising costs of higher education in Texas
Author: Institute of Medicine Publisher: National Academies Press ISBN: 0309159687 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 229
Book Description
In order for the United States to maintain the global leadership and competitiveness in science and technology that are critical to achieving national goals, we must invest in research, encourage innovation, and grow a strong and talented science and technology workforce. Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation explores the role of diversity in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce and its value in keeping America innovative and competitive. According to the book, the U.S. labor market is projected to grow faster in science and engineering than in any other sector in the coming years, making minority participation in STEM education at all levels a national priority. Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation analyzes the rate of change and the challenges the nation currently faces in developing a strong and diverse workforce. Although minorities are the fastest growing segment of the population, they are underrepresented in the fields of science and engineering. Historically, there has been a strong connection between increasing educational attainment in the United States and the growth in and global leadership of the economy. Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation suggests that the federal government, industry, and post-secondary institutions work collaboratively with K-12 schools and school systems to increase minority access to and demand for post-secondary STEM education and technical training. The book also identifies best practices and offers a comprehensive road map for increasing involvement of underrepresented minorities and improving the quality of their education. It offers recommendations that focus on academic and social support, institutional roles, teacher preparation, affordability and program development.
Author: Zachary A. Mabel Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 13
Book Description
The returns to higher education have increased dramatically in recent decades with the rise of the global, knowledge-based economy. Research shows that the college earnings premium has increased more than 10 percent over the last fifteen years and that the returns to college are concentrated among completers. Despite these benefits, many students who attend college are withdrawing without experiencing the full returns on their investment. For decades financial aid has been a widely utilized policy tool to support college access and attainment, however, given the size of the subsidies and the troubling outcomes of college enrollees, understanding how financial aid impacts student progress to degree completion is critical. In this paper, the author sheds light on an important design consideration of need-based aid programs: "the length of time for which grants should be made available." The findings contribute to the existing literature by estimating the late stage persistence and graduation effects of maintaining eligibility for aid as students near completion. Tables and figures are appended.
Author: Deven E. Carlson Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
In this pre-registered study, we analyze the effects of need-based financial aid grant offers on the educational outcomes of low-income college students based on a large-scale randomized experiment (n=48,804). We find evidence that the grant offers increase two-year persistence by 1.7 percentage points among four-year college students. The estimated effect on six-year bachelor's degree completion is of similar size--1.5 percentage points--but is not statistically significant. Among two-year students, we find positive--but not statistically significant--effects on persistence and bachelor's degree completion (1.2 and 0.5 percentage points, respectively). We find little evidence that effects vary by cohort, race, gender or the prior receipt of food stamps. However, further exploratory results do suggest that the offers reduce associate's degree completion rates for two-year community college students by around 3 percentage points, with no statistically significant evidence of effects on technical college students. We also estimate that the effects of actually receiving grant money are very similar, though slightly greater than the effects of merely receiving a grant offer. Overall, our results show only very small effects of the need-based grant offers on college students' trajectories towards degree completion.
Author: Ray Franke Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 241
Book Description
To compete in the global marketplace, the U.S. economy heavily relies on higher education institutions to educate the college graduates and knowledge workers needed to create the innovative products and services of tomorrow. And yet, where once America led the world in educational attainment, recent data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development indicates that the U.S. now ranks only 15th among major industrialized nations in college completion rates. As a result, increasing degree attainment and reclaiming America's spot at the top have become major policy objectives. Despite the heightened interest and a remarkable investment of $235 billion in total financial aid in 2010-11, however, research specifically directed at the intersection of degree attainment and financial assistance is surprisingly slim in quantity and challenged methodologically. This quantitative study sought to address limitations in the literature and examined the effects of financial aid in conjunction with students' college experiences and the institutional context on six-year degree attainment. Particularly, I studied the effects of various forms of financial aid, such as need-based and merit grants, subsidized and unsubsidized loans, and federal work-study, and how these differentially impact students from various income backgrounds. I also examined factors and experiences during students' pre-college, transition, and college attendance phases that affect degree completion at the individual level and how institutional structural-demographic characteristics, institutional and peer climate, and organizational behavior impact student success. In support of recent calls for more interdisciplinary perspectives in the study of persistence and degree attainment, I used a multitheoretical conceptual framework. To minimize endogeneity bias in the estimation of financial aid effects, I applied a propensity score matching technique in combination with a multilevel (HGLM) modeling approach. Data for this study was drawn from the Beginning Postsecondary Students survey (BPS:04/09), the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, and the Delta Cost Project. The final sample in this study encompassed N=6,561 students attending n=651 4-year colleges and universities in the U.S. Results in this study revealed that financial aid influences six-year degree attainment for all but high income students. Particularly for low income students, need-based grants from all sources (federal, state, and institutional) are found to significantly increase their chances to graduate, whereas unsubsidized loans severely lower their likelihood to obtain a baccalaureate degree. For middle income students, institutional need-based and merit grants are found to exert a positive influence on student degree completion. Results further confirmed a persistent attainment gap: despite all financial aid and controlling for students' academic performance, pre-college and college experiences, and institutional factors, low income students are found significantly less likely to obtain a baccalaureate degree. At the student level, this study also confirmed strong positive effects of academic performance in college and high school, living on campus, and being socially integrated into the campus environment. Factors found detrimental on student degree attainment are, for instance, initial transfer inclination, distance from home, and working more than 20 hours a week. In regard to contextual influences, attending a low selectivity institution is found to lower chances of degree attainment, as is attending colleges and universities with a high representation of part-time students and high share of individuals receiving federal grant aid. In contrast, institutional structural diversity, measured through the share of minority students on campus, is found to increase a student's likelihood of degree completion within six years.
Author: Deven E. Carlson Publisher: ISBN: Category : Academic achievement Languages : en Pages : 43
Book Description
In this pre-registered study, we analyze the effects of need-based financial aid grant offers on the educational outcomes of low-income college students based on a large-scale randomized experiment (n=48,804). We find evidence that the grant offers increase two-year persistence by 1.7 percentage points among four-year college students. The estimated effect on six-year bachelor’s degree completion is of similar size -- 1.5 percentage points -- but is not statistically significant. Among two-year students, we find positive -- but not statistically significant -- effects on persistence and bachelor’s degree completion (1.2 and 0.5 percentage points, respectively). We find little evidence that effects vary by cohort, race, gender or the prior receipt of food stamps. However, further exploratory results do suggest that the offers reduce associate’s degree completion rates for two-year community college students by around 3 percentage points, with no statistically significant evidence of effects on technical college students. We also estimate that the effects of actually receiving grant money are very similar, though slightly greater than the effects of merely receiving a grant offer. Overall, our results show only very small effects of the need-based grant offers on college students’ trajectories towards degree completion.
Author: Laura Melissa Reynolds
Author: Laura Melissa Reynolds
Author: Wonsun Ryu
Author: Monica E. Randall
Author: Institute of Medicine
Author: 
Author: Zachary A. Mabel
Author: Deven E. Carlson
Author: Ray Franke
Author: Deven E. Carlson
Author: Javzan Sukhbaatar