Low-income students' preferences for higher education might depend on the uncertainty of financial aid. Using a time discontinuity design, this paper exploits the unanticipated cancellation of a nationwide Colombian merit and need-based scholarship, called "Ser Pilo Paga," to study its consequences on students' preferences for higher…

This dissertation examines the impacts of a last-dollar promise program on high school-to-college enrollments at a very large community college (VLCC) district in Texas. The research intends to add to the current literature on the growing popularity of promise programs at two-year community colleges. Specifically, this quantitative study examines…

Remediating unaffordable and inequitable access to secondary education precipitated Ghana's introduction of the 'Free Senior High School (SHS)' policy. The existing scholarship has done a good job tracing the implementation gaps created by this reform. Considering the importance of local actors, whose contribution to the sustenance of the policy…

Are state universities and state scholarship programs perpetuating income inequality in the United States? Using data from Florida on the number of students from each public high school in the state who attended a State University System (SUS) university and the number who received a Florida Bright Futures (FBF) scholarship, this paper attempts to…

This study finds substantial reductions to criminal activity from the introduction of a comprehensive high school support program for disadvantaged youth living in the largest public housing project in Toronto. The program, called Pathways to Education, bundles supports such as regular coaching, tutoring, group activities, free public…

Background: Promise programs have grown exponentially. Yet, we are still learning how systemic barriers affect promise program students' abilities to meet promise program requirements and their postsecondary goals. Objective: The Degree Project (TDP) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was the nation's first randomized control trial of a promise scholarship.…

While considerable evidence has accumulated on state-funded merit-based scholarships, research on the effects of specific scholarship design choices has been thin, perhaps in part because cross-state comparisons are difficult. As one of the only states to enact major changes in the design of its merit-based scholarship program, Georgia provides a…

The focus of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of parents located in one middle Tennessee school district regarding the Tennessee Promise scholarship. The perception of the parents regarding the role of the school counselor in assisting families in the college choice process for high school seniors as they prepare for after…

This study examines the relationship between earning dual credits and college students' scholarships and grants packages, and levels, focusing on low-income students. Using nationally representative data from the High School Longitudinal Study 2009, I used a quasi-experimental approach to reduce selection bias of DE credit-earning coupled with…

The Columbus Promise, a place-based tuition-free college program for graduates of Columbus City Schools, was created in 2021 and began granting scholarships to the high school graduating class of 2022. The initial phase of the Columbus Promise is a three-year pilot covering the high school graduating classes of 2022, 2023, and 2024. The overriding…

This article provides an overview of community colleges as an access point to higher education, specifically for individuals without a high school diploma. The article highlights how one community college system is addressing both postsecondary access and workforce demands through policy and practice change. The Louisiana Community and Technical…

This study sought to examine the kinds of mindsets that the participating teachers demonstrated in their teaching and the impact of teachers' mindsets on their ways of teaching mathematics and science. Seven teachers who were teaching science or mathematics in high-needs schools in the urban context of the Bronx, New York were the participants of…

There are concerns that teacher shortages in the STEM field will lead to a downfall in the U.S. economy and security of the nation. The internship program was created to provide the STEM majors in Texas A & M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) and its partner community colleges an opportunity to observe and participate in STEM education and…

Washington, DC's Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), the only federally funded school voucher program in the United States, has provided private school scholarships to low-income students in DC since 2004. From its inception, the program has received significant attention in national debates and has been the subject of rigorous evaluations…

Considering the enrollment decline in university teacher preparation programs, this phenomenological study explored the experiences of seven southeastern Wisconsin public high school juniors and seniors, who were interested in a pursuing a teaching degree, but have changed their minds and dismissed their original career path. The purpose of the…