Increasing college attainment offers tremendous promise for increasing social mobility, tackling poverty, and reducing racial and income inequality, aspirations that are more vital than ever as the devastating impact of the pandemic has fallen disproportionately on people of color. Yet for too many policymakers and practitioners, the path to…

This fact sheet explores the association between parental income and the pathways of young adults in postsecondary education for students who began their studies in the 2012/2013 academic year. Students from low-income families have previously been shown to have lower rates of educational access and attainment. This fact sheet focuses on…

Thinking about college provokes a mix of excitement and angst for high school students. For many, applying to and attending college are a normal rite of passage. But for many students in the U.S., particularly from low-income backgrounds, the idea of getting into college feels daunting and foreign. In 1997, Dave Borgal founded Bottom Line to help…

This policy brief synthesizes research on enrollment, graduation and career success for traditionally underrepresented students, the benefits of diverse learning environments including campus racial climate, and the need to increase diversity in UC professional and graduate schools to better serve the health and wellbeing of all Californians. This…

College students' experiences vary significantly by race and ethnicity. Often, institutions prioritize structuring their undergraduate experience to cater to white students' needs and desires, such as by hiring predominantly white instructors, and creating classroom learning environments that privilege white students. Though scholars researching…

This first educational equity report for higher education from the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) and Colorado Equity Champions Coalition (ECC) supports Colorado's goal to reach 66% educational attainment by 2025 through the implementation of strategies aimed at erasing equity gaps. In order to better understand the issues Colorado…

In a state where most higher education institutions are working to address financial and enrollment challenges, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) faces some of the greatest difficulties of all. UWM's steep enrollment drop has exacerbated the effects of an eight-year tuition freeze and lagging state funding, forcing cuts to faculty,…

Growing experimental evidence demonstrates that low-touch informational, nudge, and virtual advising interventions are ineffective at improving postsecondary educational outcomes for economically-disadvantaged students at scale. Intensive in-person college advising programs are a considerably higher-touch and more resource intensive strategy; some…

As the largest university in the state's biggest city, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) plays a crucial role in providing higher education to disadvantaged students. It also serves as the third-largest research institution in the state, behind only UW-Madison and the Medical College of Wisconsin. In 2013, an estimated $1.5 billion in…

Despite rich evidence on the benefit of summer enrollment at the K-12 level, the college completion literature has so far focused on college readiness, remediation, and financial aid, and has largely overlooked the potential benefits of taking summer courses among college students. Academic momentum theory suggests that summer enrollment may…

Over the previous two decades, state lawmakers have made two fundamental changes to how they finance their public universities. They have shifted more of the costs of higher education to students and their families through higher tuition rates; and created new grant programs that are not solely based on financial need but require prior…

Higher education provides many benefits to students, including higher earnings, and to society, including increased tax receipts and reduced dependence on government assistance. But, in the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO's) view, there is no consensus on whether the current suite of federal programs and tax credits, or the amount of money…

This report, an analysis of 1669 U.S. institutions, is a first-time study of the relationship of attrition to revenues lost in four-year public, private, and for-profit colleges and universities on an annual basis. The report is the result of a study investigating the financial impact of attrition on four-year colleges and universities. Other…

This Accountability Report shows the status and progression of the University of West Florida (UWF) from one year to the next. The Executive Summary is divided into the following sections: (1) Dashboard; (2) Performance Funding Metrics; (3) Key Achievements; and (4) Narrative. Data tables on UWF's financial resources, personnel, enrollment,…

This dissertation comprises three essays that empirically examine the educational outcomes of for-profit college students, military enlistees and immigrant youth. All of these are groups of "non-average" students that, in different contexts, pose challenges to the traditional provision of education. Therefore, their outcomes need to be…