ERIC Number: ED618119
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Jun-4
Pages: 58
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Impact of Merit Aid on College Choice and Degree Attainment: Reexamining Florida's Bright Futures Program
Grantee Submission
We replicate and extend prior work on Florida's Bright Futures merit aid scholarship to consider its effect on college enrollment and degree completion. We estimate causal impacts using a regression discontinuity design to exploit SAT thresholds that strongly determine eligibility. We find no positive impacts on attendance or attainment, and instrumental variable results generally reject estimates as small as 1-2 percentage points. Across subgroups, we find that eligibility slightly reduces six-year associate degree attainment for lower-SES students, and may induce small enrollment shifts among Hispanic and White students toward four-year colleges. Our findings of these minimal-at-best impacts contrast those of prior works, attributable in part to methodological improvements and more robust data, and further underscore the importance of study replication. [This paper will be published in "Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis" (EJ1328797).]
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Two Year Colleges
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Florida
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305B200035