Funding for community colleges varies significantly, even within the same state. Several factors account for these differences, including more generous funding for smaller institutions to compensate for their higher costs per student, unequal local funding from property tax revenues, and political forces. In theory, this variation could lead to…

The Pell Grant is the foundational need-based student aid program in the United States, providing students of lower socio-economic status a pathway to afford college costs and educational expenses. Currently, over one-third of all U.S. undergraduate students receive Pell. This paper examines federal Pell assistance and institutional costs for…

The New York State Back to School Guide is written for people who wish to pursue a college education in New York State after their release from incarceration. Its core purpose is to help readers develop a thoughtful and practical academic reentry plan to advance personal and professional goals. Additionally, this resource will be useful to…

Given the major investment in the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) grant, rising postsecondary access, trends in poor persistence and retention rates, and the ongoing accountability measures in higher education, it is critical to examine factors related to postsecondary performance and persistence of GEAR…

Learning assistant (LA) programs have been implemented at a range of institutions, usually as part of a comprehensive curricular transformation accompanied by a pedagogical switch to active learning. While this shift in pedagogy has led to increased student learning gains, the positive effect of LAs has not yet been distinguished from that of…

In the context of the recent efforts to arrive at a federal budget, articles abound in the popular media and trade publications debating both the value of Pell Grants and their rising cost to the U.S. government. Both pros and cons of the debate hold value. Pell Grants are what enable many low-income families to send their children to college and,…

The mission of the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) is to provide higher education services to the citizens of the State at an excellent level of quality consistent with the state's resources. The information in this report is provided by the financial aid officers at each NSHE institution. Each fall, institutions submit a detailed…

This report, based on the 1987 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, provides information on how different sources and types of student financial aid were combined to produce student aid awards or packages for 34,544 undergraduate students. First, aid awards are examined by the source of aid; second, by the type of aid; and third, by a…

A study was done of the Lilly Endowment Educational Awards (LEEAs), one type of gift-aid for fulltime undergraduate Indiana residents. In particular the study addressed: (1) who receives LEEAs; (2) how Pell, State of Indiana, and LEEA formulas interact; (3) what happens when LEEAs are combined with all of the other types of gift-aid for a total…

This analysis examines alternative ways to use the approximately $6 billion now spent annually on Pell Grants to produce higher maximum awards for low-income students. The need for such alternatives is based on the rapidly declining value of the maximum Pell Grant as a percentage of college costs. A table offers 5-year baseline projections under…

This study examined effects of increased availability of undergraduate student loan funds under the Higher Education Act Amendments of 1992. It studied the effects of price variables and accumulated debt on student persistence decisions using data from the National Student Postsecondary Aid 1992-93 and 1995-96 Surveys. For two-year college…