In this study, the authors use college enrollment and migration data to test the brain drain hypothesis. Their results suggest that state merit scholarship programs do indeed stanch the migration of "best and brightest" students to other states. In the aggregate and on average, the implementation of state merit aid programs increases the…

To compete in the global marketplace, the U.S. economy heavily relies on higher education institutions to educate the college graduates and knowledge workers needed to create the innovative products and services of tomorrow. And yet, where once America led the world in educational attainment, recent data from the Organization for Economic…

This report provides data regarding state-funded expenditures for student financial aid and illustrates the extent of efforts made by the states to assist postsecondary students. Information in this report is based on academic year 2010-11 data from the 42nd Annual National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs (NASSGAP) survey.…

Since the adoption of Georgia's HOPE (Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally) scholarship program, seven additional Southeastern states have adopted similar merit-based financial aid programs, most of which are also funded by state lotteries. This study examines why North Carolina after adopting a state lottery in 2005 did not allocate its…

This project represents the beginning of a partnership between the State of Michigan and researchers at the University of Michigan and Michigan State Michigan. The partnership is formalized as the Michigan Consortium for Educational Research (MCER). The goal of MCER is to engage key stakeholders and experts in high quality education research for…

This study examines the differences in the portfolio of institutional scholarships and the marketing of these awards between flagship campuses with and without state merit aid programs. Using content analysis techniques to analyze institutional websites of the 16 Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) flagship campuses, three thematic responses…

Each year, the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs (NASSGAP) completes a survey regarding state-funded expenditures for postsecondary student financial aid. This report, the 41th annual survey, represents data from academic year 2009-10. Data highlights include: (1) In the 2009-2010 academic year, the states awarded about…

Researchers in the field of educational administration have given little attention to the role of the associate principal. The research reported in this dissertation sought to fill that void through a close examination of the roles of the associate principals on two campuses in two different school districts. In addition to illustrating the role…

Despite the scholarly attention on the effects of merit aid on college access and choice, particularly on the significant effect that states' varied eligibility criteria play, no studies have examined the policy process through which merit aid criteria are determined. This is surprising given the recent attention to state-level policy dynamics and…

Most policies seeking to improve high school achievement historically either provided incentives for educators or punished students. Since 1991, however, over a dozen states, comprising approximately a quarter of the nation's high school seniors, have implemented broad-based merit scholarship programs that reward students for their high school…

Comprising eleven financial aid programs, the Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship (TELS) provided financial aid to 101,569 students at a cost of $297,589,674 in 2010-11 (Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation [TSAC], 2011). The four largest programs (the HOPE scholarship program, the General Assembly Merit Scholarship program [GAMS], the…

One of the major developments in financing undergraduate education in the United States in the past 20 years has been the introduction of broad-based merit-aid programs by state governments. The typical program waives tuition and fees at public colleges and universities for state residents who have attained a respectable grade-point average…

Changes in the distribution of student financial aid have taken place at the state and federal level. In addition, several authors have reported on shifts in the awarding of financial aid to students at the institutional level. The analysis described in this study examines shifts in institutional responsiveness to both student need and student…

The driving force behind the recent increase in financial aid for college education is the rapid growth of state merit-based grant programs that provide scholarships to students who meet predefined standards of academic preparation at the state level, and this trend represents one of the most pronounced policy shifts away from a long tradition of…

The current study examined the validity of the selection process used for the National Merit Scholarship Program (NMSP) to identify scholarship winners. Namely, this study examined whether students who advanced to higher NMSP recognition levels (Commended Students, Semifinalists, and various levels of award winners) had higher college performance,…