The "Student FAFSA Completion Report" (2023) is submitted pursuant to Education Article § 7-212, Annotated Code of Maryland, which requires the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS) Center to annually produce, on or before December 15th of each year, beginning in 2023 and ending in 2028, on the submission and completion of the Free…

States invest heavily in education, providing funding either directly or in the form of financial aid from preschool through college, with positive outcomes from those impacting nearly every other area of public policy, particularly the workforce. To understand and assess results, states collect and analyze information about these investments at…

The majority of Southern states performed below the national average and the average of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in terms of the percent of young adults in 2015 who attained an associate degree or higher. This regional profile presents a synthesis of trends in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB)…

Many states are experimenting with mechanisms for making college more affordable while maintaining quality and access. This report examines promising or innovative state programs to improve college affordability and credential attainment. Many of these approaches show innovative thinking and bear watching to see if they result in meaningful…

There is a vast literature on the decision to enroll in higher education, but it focuses almost entirely on traditional students: 18 year olds graduating from high school. Yet less than half of students at degree-granting institutions are in the traditional 18-22 age range; nearly 40% are at least 25. This paper examines the enrollment behavior of…

National and regional trends mask important variation among states in the supply of high school graduates. This profile provides brief indicators for Maryland related to: current levels of educational attainment, projections of high school graduates into the future, and two common barriers to student access and success--insufficient academic…

The Maryland Higher Education Commission funded the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to review the state's financial aid programs and to make recommendations for improvement. To determine how to improve the content, delivery, and administration of financial aid in Maryland, AIR conducted a number of activities, including a literature review,…