This dissertation examines whether Tennessee's adoption of PBF as part of base appropriations for public higher education institutions in 2010 is associated with changes in STEM degree production patterns at public four-year universities. The study investigates the policy impact on the total number of degrees awarded, the number and proportion of…

When the federal government banned incarcerated students from accessing Pell Grants in the mid-1990s, a new model for supporting Higher Education in Prison (HEP) programs emerged--utilizing Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) as third-party facilitators to fill the gaps left behind in the absence of federal financial aid. With the long-awaited…

The past two decades have seen the rise of the residency model, another nontraditional pathway to certification that offers an intensive, practice-based, context-specific preparation designed to address shortages in hard-to-staff districts. Although advocates call the model innovative, research examining residencies at scale warrants skepticism…

The growth of homeschooling from a somewhat fringe movement during the 1970s and 1980s to a more widespread and socially accepted approach in recent decades has provided a strong foundation of flexible learning models. When Florida's school choice expansion, House Bill 1, was introduced in January 2023, one of its goals was to allow more…

English learners (ELs) are one of the fastest-growing student groups in the U.S. K-12 system, making up about one in 10 students enrolled in public schools nationwide. Despite research showing that EL students need more resources and supports to be successful in school, funding at the federal, state, and local levels to provide those additional…

The use of performance-based funding that ties state higher education appropriations to performance metrics has increased dramatically in recent years, but most programs place at stake a small percent of overall funding. We analyze the effect of two notable exceptions--Ohio and Tennessee--where nearly all state funding is tied to performance…

Home visiting connects expectant parents, new caregivers, and their young children with a support person, called a home visitor. The home visitor meets regularly with the family, develops a relationship with them, and supports them to achieve their goals and meet their needs. To reach the thousands of additional families who could benefit from…

Given the proliferation of college promise programs and the increasing popularity of last-dollar designs, we explore changes to states' financial aid resource environments following the adoption of two of the largest and longest-operating state programs: Tennessee Promise and Oregon Promise. We leverage descriptive tools and a causal-inference…

This final brief of a three-part series explores Tennessee and its legislative attempts to curb underfunding. The first brief explored the national landscape of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) funding, including the historical disinvestment of land grant HBCUs. The second brief explored the systemic underfunding of HBCUs in…

Teachers contribute more to reading and math outcomes than any other factor of schooling. However, teacher shortages are pervasive. How can schools and districts recruit high-quality educators, hold onto to the ones they already have, and reflect the diversity of their students? This infographic highlights innovative models beyond the traditional…

In the United States, people often feel like they need to choose between pursuing a conventional four-year college degree or working, leaving millions of people with no opportunity to achieve the professional and economic advancement that comes with a bachelor's degree. What if this is a false choice? Apprenticeship Degrees offer a hybrid option…

With fewer individuals entering the education profession, particularly via traditional routes, and increased attrition, the educator workforce has declined. In response, states, districts, and educator preparation programs (EPPs) are leveraging alternative pathways to establish a pipeline of teachers to fill the nation's classrooms. One such…

This report explains how the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) Act came to be and offers promising practices and lessons other states may adapt to their political and economic contexts. Through in-depth interviews with advocates and state leaders, the authors uncovered five factors that contributed to TISA's passage that have…

Since the Tennessee Promise's 2014 launch, "free college" or "Promise" programs have proliferated rapidly and converged on design features: a "last-dollar" award and community college applicability. Researchers who study these programs' effects generally presume they are tuition-reducing endeavors. In contrast, we…

This is the first of two reports exploring the relationship between coal activity and funding for elementary and secondary education in the Appalachian Region. In this first report, patterns in funding for elementary and secondary education are explored using annual data from 1995 to 2016. Counties that had some level of coal employment over this…