It is often thought that college undergraduates are young, recent high school graduates. Overall, this is the norm -- last year, roughly 70 percent of undergraduates eligible for the State Grant were dependent students, meaning they were dependent on a parent for financial support. However, nearly 30 percent of undergraduates who were eligible for…

Parents and guardians are the biggest influencers on enrollment for students. Nearly all are invested and involved in the college search process with their students. But are colleges and universities really engaging them? Are they communicating the right information, with the right frequency, across the right channels? Are they helping families…

We combine a large multi-site randomized control trial with administrative and survey data to demonstrate that intensive advising during high school and college leads to large increases in bachelor's degree attainment. Novel causal forest methods suggest that these increases are driven primarily by improvements in the quality of initial…

For decades, social theorists have posited--and descriptive accounts have shown--that students isolated by both social class and ethnicity suffer extreme deprivations that limit the effectiveness of equal-opportunity interventions. Even educational programs that yield positive results for moderately disadvantaged students may not prove beneficial…

The current study uses a large, nationally representative data set and a new method for computing teacher expectations to better understand the developmental effect of mathematics teacher expectations on future student achievement. The study utilizes autoregressive cross-lagged models with 5 time points between kindergarten and 8th grade as well…

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most students did not start college in the Fall of 2020 surrounded by other students who were also excited for the journey they were about to collectively undertake. Instead, for the large majority of students, their only interactions with their college campuses were through computer screens--and even for the few who…

In 2004 and 2005, the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education (Pell Institute), sponsored by the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE), published two editions of "Indicators of Opportunity in Higher Education." In 2015, the commitment to documenting trends in higher education equity was renewed by publishing…

Background: A growing number of scholars argue that Hispanic-White disparities in college pathways are at least partly attributable to the fact that Hispanic students experience the college preparation and enrollment process differently from their White peers. Recent research suggests that one way in which the process differs between the two…

This report, the seventh in this series, brings together again in partnership the Pell Institute with the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy of the University of Pennsylvania (PennAHEAD). These reports draw from multiple sources of existing data to provide, in one place, indicators that describe trends in equity in postsecondary…

Sallie Mae, the nation's saving, planning, and paying for college company, along with Ipsos, one of the world's largest, independent market research companies, surveyed 800 college students to learn more about how they are managing their finances and using credit. The online survey, completed in December 2015, comprised a cross-section of key…

The primary purpose of the 2016-2017 North Carolina (NC) Pre-Kindergarten (NC Pre-K) Evaluation study was to examine variability in enrollment practices within the statewide Pre-K Program. Four major categories of enrollment practices were examined: recruitment, application, placement, and waitlist. The study involved all 91 local NC Pre-K Program…

The focus of this study is to explore college outcomes for students who come from traditionally lower-income backgrounds, reporting a household income of $30,000 or less, and who were awarded a fee reduction to take one or more Advanced Placement® (AP®) Exams, compared to students with a similar background and ability who did not participate in an…

Do schools reduce or perpetuate inequality by race and family income? Most studies conclude that schools play only a small role in explaining socioeconomic and racial disparities in educational outcomes, but they usually draw this conclusion based solely on test scores. We reconsider this finding using longitudinal data on test scores and…

Few studies have examined the steps to college enrollment between college aspiration and college enrollment and how these steps might present a barrier to four-year college enrollment. This study used data from the Education Longitudinal Study: 2002 and employed a multivariate random effects logistic framework to examine the completion of nine…

This year's "Tennessee Higher Education Fact Book" consists of four sections and an appendix of additional resources and terminology. The four main sections of the report provide data on Student Participation, Student Success, Academic and Fiscal Trends, and Outcomes-Based Funding. Relative to the previous Fact Book, Quality Assurance…