It can be hard to keep up with all the latest reports in education related to college access and attainment. Acknowledging that, here are summaries of five recent interesting pieces of research. Are you a National College Attainment Network (NCAN) member who really likes data, evaluation, and research? Email me at [email protected] to get involved in our data, evaluation, and research channel on the NCAN Online Practitioner Community!
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Students for Fair Admissions caused cascading changes in some institutions’ enrollment composition. When a 2023 Supreme Court decision determined that most race-based affirmative action policies in college admissions violated the 14th Amendment, the field worried that there would be ripple effects in who was admitted to, and enrolled at, some higher education institutions. New research using IPEDS data suggests that those worries were well-founded. Specifically, “among more selective institutions, Black student shares decline while White shares increase, with the largest effects in highly selective private institutions and more broadly across public institutions. Hispanic shares also decline and Asian shares rise, although less consistently. Pell and state aid receipt decrease, suggesting that reduced racial/ethnic diversity leads to less socioeconomic diversity as well.”
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State merit aid programs reduces out-of-state “brain drain.” It’s no surprise we are fans of need-based grant aid here at NCAN, but this research using, “national survey data on college enrollment and U.S. Census data,” looks at the impacts of state merit aid programs. When states adopt these programs, it keeps some students in-state who might have gone out-of-state, but ultimately, “there is little evidence that these programs increase degree attainment or long-run in-state residence.” Even more unfortunately, “for women, program exposure reduces post-college employment and earnings, while there is limited evidence of effects for men.”
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The REACT intervention is showing significant impacts for re-enrolling the some college, no credential population. An MDRC study from April evaluates the Re-Enrollment and Completion Team (REACT) intervention across four Florida colleges and a sample of nearly 3,000 students. To be considered for the study, participants had to be recent stop-outs who had been seeking an associate’s degree and were also within 15 credits of graduation and in good academic standing (2.0 GPA or higher). The REACT intervention included outreach like text messages, emails, phone calls, and postcard mailers to encourage them to reenroll. Once they were re-enrolled, students got a dedicated REACT adviser who helped with re-enrollment process and degree planning. Students also received tuition and fee waivers for up to 15 credits, theoretically enough to finish their degrees. Students who were offered REACT reenrolled at rates 9.5 percentage points higher than the control group that did not have access to the intervention (20.7% reenrollment versus 11.2%). This suggests that the promise of supports and fee waivers was a big inducement for getting students back into the classroom. Future research will look at a larger sample of prospective re-enrollers and also degree attainment outcomes. Given what we know about how the related ASAP intervention has increased degree attainment for associate’s-seeking students, I am hopeful about what the findings will show. There are 40 MILLION some college, no credential adults across the country. If this intervention can get more of them back on the path to degree attainment, it would be a tremendous development.
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Most state financial aid programs rely heavily on the FAFSA, which creates both opportunities and risks. This recent report from the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) found that 70% of state aid programs require the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to be able to determine and disburse state aid to students. Using an inventory of the FAFSA components states rely on and focus group data of state grant aid administrators, the report conducts a deep dive on how states use FAFSA data, how federal uncertainty and change influence state aid programs, and a state-landscape analysis of state aid alternative applications. Overall, these data suggest that states preserve alignment between their state aid systems and the FAFSA, but the effectiveness of this shared infrastructure is dependent on the reliability of the FAFSA, as we saw with the rocky rollout of the 24-25 form.
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Accelerated pathways like dual enrollment aren’t enough for the 18-year-old college junior. Helios Education Foundation conducted an evaluation looking at the academic and social experiences of accelerated college students, those who enrolled with dual enrollment, AP, or IB credits, in Florida. They found most accelerated students feel academically prepared in college, but that some struggle with social integration due to having less time to engage in extracurriculars and other activities. This shortened graduation timeline also contributes to some students feeling at a disadvantage as they approach the end of undergrad, since they didn’t have the same amount of time to partake in internships and leadership positions as their peers. Reducing the time to degree can have a significant positive impact on students’ persistence and completion, but additional supports such as strengthening advising and guidance for these students can combat the unintended consequences related to social integration and post-graduation endeavors.
That’s it for now – have research you’d like to elevate to the rest of the NCAN membership? Let me know at [email protected], and it might appear in a future rendition of this series.