Higher Education

Undocumented students who became eligible for California’s state aid program enroll in college at similar rates to their peers, though are more likely to attend community college due to differences in where they apply. Yet undocumented students who attend four-year colleges are equally likely to persist and earn a degree, pushing against any evidence of “mismatch” that suggests these students are not prepared for those environments.

We find that Florida’s Bright Futures financial aid program had essentially no impact on postsecondary enrollment and degree completion. These findings align with emerging notions that state merit aid programs produce smaller effects when compared to more effective need-based aid.

The federal government instituted changes to simplify the FAFSA filing process – known as “prior-prior year” – which led students to submit their FAFSA substantially earlier and increased refiling rates for independent students. Nonetheless, the policy did not appear to substantially alter state aid receipt or postsecondary attendance for any groups.

In this study, we provide a rich description of one academic coaching program and use a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the program’s effects on student outcomes. We investigate two research questions: 1) how does academic coaching influence key student outcomes? and 2) to what extent do these effects vary by amount of coaching received?

Link to Resource: The Relationship between the Learning Assistant Model and Failure in STEM Gateway Courses Authors: Jessica L. Alzen, Laurie Langdon, and Valerie K. Otero Citation: Alzen, J.L., Langdon, L., and Otero, V.K. (2018). The relationship between the Learning Assistant Model and failure in STEM gateway courses. Boulder, CO:...

Link to Resource: The Relationship between the Learning Assistant Model and Persistence to Graduation Authors: Jessica L. Alzen, Laurie Langdon, Valerie K. Otero, and Derek C. Briggs Citation: Alzen, J.L., Langdon, L., Otero, V.K., and Briggs, D.C. (2018). The relationship between the Learning Assistant Model and persistence to graduation. Boulder,...