Advising students on college admissions and financial aid is an important pillar of most high school counseling programs. This work has become more challenging for many school counselors since the pandemic, so it is imperative to find new ways to explore how counselors approach college advising today. This novel research utilized Hansen's (1995)…

While considerable evidence has accumulated on state-funded merit-based scholarships, research on the effects of specific scholarship design choices has been thin, perhaps in part because cross-state comparisons are difficult. As one of the only states to enact major changes in the design of its merit-based scholarship program, Georgia provides a…

Teacher apprenticeship programs are a new and exciting structure that help strengthen and diversify the educator workforce by offering an alternative approach to teacher licensure. Often providing financial assistance, mentorship, and classroom experience, these programs help pave the way for high-quality candidates, benefitting schools, students,…

Low-income students' preferences for higher education might depend on the uncertainty of financial aid. Using a time discontinuity design, this paper exploits the unanticipated cancellation of a nationwide Colombian merit and need-based scholarship, called "Ser Pilo Paga," to study its consequences on students' preferences for higher…

The Kalamazoo Promise (KPromise) is amongst the most well-known and generous tuition-free policies. This study advances the understanding of Promise student performance and persistence. We used a weighted-least square means and variance adjusted (WLSMV) SEM approach and k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) to deal with missing data. The main model suggested…

Following a landmark court ruling in 2005, more than half of Germany's universities started charging tuition fees, which were subsequently abolished until 2015. We exploit the unusual lack of grandfathering in these policies to show that fees increase study effort and degree completion among incumbent students. However, fees also decrease…

Every year, millions of students take Advanced Placement (AP) exams hoping to score enough points to earn college credit and save on their tuition bill. But are they getting a real college education? The College Board says that AP classes and exams make the AP program more accessible and represent a step forward for educational justice. But the…

Card and Krueger (1992a,b) used labor market outcomes to study the productivity of school spending. Following their lead, we examine effects of post-1990 school finance reforms on students' educational attainment and labor market outcomes. Lafortune et al. (2018) show that these reforms increased school spending and narrowed spending and…

Every country desires and aspires for an education system that caters for learners' physiological needs, belonging, love, self-esteem, security and self-actualisation at the top, which are rarely provided by a few countries. With a review focus on the Ugandan education system, several challenges related to the "education borrowing…

Objective: Dual enrollment has become a significant portion of community college enrollment throughout the country. Some scholars have argued that dual enrollment implementation can be used as a viable policy lever to achieve the certificate and associate degree obtainment outcomes identified in "Reclaiming the American Dream," a…

Higher education costs have risen steadily over the last several decades, making it difficult for many students to afford college. Promise and other free-tuition programs have seen varied levels of success, but almost all programs studied have been in urban or suburban areas. A cross-sectional study examines if and to what extent guaranteed…

Secondary career and technical education has drawn increased attention from policymakers over the past several years. States have sought ways to connect secondary CTE to future learning and careers. Based on a review of 2021 legislative activity concerning secondary CTE, lawmakers in 46 states introduced at least 315 bills concerning CTE, and many…

State finance reforms have raised per-pupil spending and elevated the achievement of disadvantaged students over the past half-century. But we know little about how fresh funding may alter teacher staffing or the social and curricular organization of schools, mediating gains in learning. We find that US$1.1 billion in new yearly funding--arriving…

Card and Krueger (1992a,b) used labor market outcomes to study the productivity of school spending. Following their lead, we examine effects of post-1990 school finance reforms on students' educational attainment and labor market outcomes. Using a state-by-cohort panel design, we find that reforms increased high school completion and…

This study explores high school families' understanding of college financing. The research examines what college-bound students and parents know about financial aid, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®), scholarships, and student loans. The report evaluates perceptions, exposes common misconceptions, and gauges how prepared high…