This study is the first large-scale examination of the impact of for-profit colleges on the enrollment and outcomes of students at other postsecondary institutions. Using data primarily from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and a differences-in-differences approach, I estimate the effect of a new for-profit college…

In 2010, the Obama Administration proposed new regulations designed to hold institutions of higher education (IHEs) accountable for student outcomes. I examine the effects of the regulatory uncertainty surrounding these "Gainful Employment" (GE) regulations on enrollment at for-profit IHEs. I utilize informational debt rates of GE…

Spurring parental involvement has been a core objective of charter school reform. This study compares for-profit-managed and nonprofit-managed charter schools and their public school peers in Detroit on two indicators of parental involvement. Nonprofit-managed charter schools generated higher rates of general parental involvement, net of…

Each year, the U.S. Department of Education assigns all private nonprofit and for-profit colleges receiving federal financial aid dollars a financial responsibility score, which is designed to reflect an institution's overall financial stability. Yet no scholarly literature has examined financial responsibility scores or whether colleges respond…

This article offers a quantitative analysis of the growth of for-profit provision of teacher education in the United States. Data from all Title-IV-aid-participating institutions from 1996 to 2008 is analyzed to provide a comprehensive overview of the relative changes in enrollments of education majors at public, not-for-profit, and for-profit…

Background/Context: Sub-baccalaureate certificates can provide an accelerated pathway to gainful employment for the unemployed or underemployed. Certificates represented only 6% of postsecondary awards in 1980, but today they represent 22% of all credentials awarded and have superseded associate's and master's degrees as the second most common…

This article explores the promises and pitfalls of using National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) data to measure a variety of postsecondary outcomes. We first describe the history of the NSC, the basic structure of its data, and recent research interest in using NSC data. Second, using information from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data…

The problem facing American colleges and universities is larger than even the term "bubble" implies. A bursting bubble would force change on the more than four thousand postsecondary institutions in the United States, but something even more destructive is going to hit higher education, probably at the same time. The major sign that a…

Critics say that for-profit career colleges--which, according to industry figures, enrolled 3.2 million students in the United States in 2009--have been plagued by deceptive recruiting practices that lure students into programs they could find elsewhere for much less money. Students often borrow tens of thousands of dollars to attend these…

For-profit, or proprietary, colleges are the fastest-growing postsecondary schools in the nation, enrolling a disproportionately high share of disadvantaged and minority students and those ill-prepared for college. Because these schools, many of them big national chains, derive most of their revenue from taxpayer-funded student financial aid, they…

While most in the academic community know about the attempt to rein in the for-profits, few are aware of its collateral damage. In October, the Department of Education (DOE) issued its Program Integrity Rules, intended to protect federal funds especially from those for-profit institutions with high student loan default rates. Well-intentioned…

Although for-profit institutions continue to enroll large numbers of students, less is known about the for-profit institution itself, the reasons for its proliferation, or even students' impetus for selecting for-profit options over not-for-profit options. This statement is particularly true for the Latina/o student population despite their…

Much of what was written about for-profit colleges prior to the late 1990s was either simple advocacy or abstract criticism. Today's literature includes more general description and more use of organizational, economic, and political concepts. This article addresses the status of for-profit colleges that offer at least an associate degree or…

Competition makes marketing diversification necessary for proprietary schools. Considering significant demographic and social changes can help identify a school's primary and secondary markets and target new audiences for recruitment. (SK)

The recent growth of for-profit higher education has been marked by the rising importance of institutional ownership by publicly traded corporations. This paper looks at 13 publicly traded corporations that own degree-granting for-profit institutions of higher education in the United States, examining corporate growth strategies and their…