As tuition-free college policies spread rapidly across the states, an increasingly important policy debate has emerged regarding the optimal policy design of tuition-free college. However, existing scholarly evidence has focused almost exclusively on student outcomes, leaving the political decision-making processes among the public and…

Understanding the concerns high school students have about college presents opportunities to address college-bound students' needs before they arrive on campus, potentially increasing enrollment and retention. In this study, we investigated the academic, campus, social, and personal concerns of college-bound high school students and how these…

This brief is the seventh in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates over six years. BERC established a partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS) that has made it possible to examine both…

This "Economic Insights" article documents postsecondary enrolment rates among 19-year-olds over the 2001-to-2014 period by province of parental residence, parental income and sex. The data are drawn from the T1 Family File. Postsecondary enrolment is determined by the tuition, education and textbook credits on the personal income tax…

Since 2001, the Annie E. Casey Foundation has been working with Atlanta's Southside communities to transform high-poverty city neighborhoods and help low-income families and children succeed. While some progress is being made, the gap between Atlanta's haves and have-nots remains immense. This report -- which is a follow-up to Casey's…

There has been little research on how family income background influences the career earnings boost from a college education. In new research, the authors reach a startling finding: the percentage boost to career earnings from a college education is much lower for individuals who grew up in lower-income families, compared to their peers who grew…

In this brief, authors Marybeth Mattingly, Andrew Schaefer, and Douglas Gagnon explore challenges and opportunities for youth in Southwestern (SW) Minnesota. They analyze data on various demographic, economic, educational, and social indicators to gain a better understanding of the circumstances youth face and the opportunity available in SW…

The focus of this study is to explore college outcomes for students who come from traditionally lower-income backgrounds, reporting a household income of $30,000 or less, and who were awarded a fee reduction to take one or more Advanced Placement® (AP®) Exams, compared to students with a similar background and ability who did not participate in an…

This article examines the extent to which impacts of a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program on children's academic outcomes vary by key characteristics associated with families' propensity to earn the rewards offered by the program. We utilize an experimental study of Opportunity NYC-Family Rewards, a comprehensive CCT program in New York City…

Experimental approaches can help disentangle the impacts of policies from the effects of individual characteristics, but the heterogeneity of implementation inherent in studies with complex program designs may mask average treatment impacts (Morris & Hendra, 2009). In the case of the Opportunity NYC-Family Rewards (ONYC-Family Rewards),…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether age differences affect students' academic achievement, and whether age differences affect students in low-income areas differently than those in mixed or higher-income areas. Student achievement data for grades 3, 7, and 11 in language arts and math were obtained from a variety of schools located…

This study builds on and informs ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) by focusing on the contextual processes by which individual developmental trajectories can be altered. Ecological theory posits that children are embedded in a nested and interactive set of interrelated contexts beginning with the micro-system (the most…

Numerous studies have investigated the utility of the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (HDS) model for predicting parents' involvement in students' education. Yet, the model has yet to be thoroughly evaluated with respect to youth who are (a) in high school and (b) from sociodemographically diverse families. Using a nationally representative sample of…

This study examines high school students' confidence in their planned college major with an emphasis on students planning to study one of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The study draws on responses from the ACT Student Interest Inventory of the Illinois High School Class of 2003, which asks students about…

This report portrays various performance indicators that are intended to facilitate an assessment of the postsecondary education system in South Dakota. Descriptive statistics are presented for South Dakota and five other comparison states as well as the nation. Comparison states were selected according to the degree of similarity of population…