Incarcerated students are generally prohibited from receiving Pell grants, which provide need-based federal financial aid to low-income undergraduate students. However, Education has the authority to waive specific statutory or regulatory requirements for providing federal student aid at schools approved to participate in its experiments.…

The Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program provided grants to community colleges and other eligible institutions of higher education to expand and improve their ability to deliver education and career training programs. Grant-funded colleges served workers who were eligible for training under the Trade…

The rapidly changing economy is raising the stakes on states to address the skilled workforce needs of employers and to expand economic opportunity to more people and places. To guide the policy actions of states, Jobs for the Future (JFF) designed a comprehensive policy agenda for increasing attainment of postsecondary credentials valued in the…

Performance funding--the linking of allocation of resources to accomplishment of certain desired outcomes--is an idea that is once again finding favor with policymakers. It has intuitive appeal; what's not to like about paying for results? While it is a notion that makes common sense to most decisionmakers, it is an idea with a very checkered…

This research brief examines the challenges and opportunities presented in evaluating whether an intervention achieves defined goals of increasing students' educational attainment, employment, and earnings after high school. The report concludes that evaluations should: (1) Distinguish between gross outcomes (such as how many young people attend…

Since July 2005, all 50 state governors have signed the National Governors Association's Graduation Counts Compact on State High School Graduation Data. 30 states have now received Honor States grants, for which implementation of the Graduation Counts Compact is a core requirement. This is a significant step forward, but much work remains to be…