Financial aid opens the door to a college degree and makes higher education a real possibility for students from all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Student knowledge about financial aid availability and application processes, however, varies substantially by race, ethnicity, and income. Despite belonging to families with lower-than-average family…

Centering the experiences and expertise of students who have gone through non-degree programs and pathways is critical to developing policy that effectively and equitably promotes credential attainment and economic mobility. Students can provide important insights into gaps and barriers created by existing public policies and how policymakers can…

Financial aid promotes and supports students' access to and success in higher education. This is especially true at community colleges. Whether students are seeking job training, a certificate or an associate degree, many rely on consistent and meaningful sources of financial support to advance their educational aspirations. Without these…

Native American students are a demographic group that has consistently been underrepresented in institutions of higher education (IHEs) in the United States. Despite tremendous growth in the enrollment of these students in recent years, they are still underrepresented compared to other subgroups. While other minority students encompass about 29%…

This guide is intended for college financial aid administrators and counselors who help students begin the aid process--filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form, verifying information, and making corrections and other changes to the information reported on the FAFSA. The Federal Student Aid Handbook consists of the…

This book explores the holistic development of vocational education in Chinese education system. It investigates the vocational education policy development, student development, allocation of teachers' resources, financial mechanism and system, students' financial aid, examination and enrollment, private vocational education system, and…

The purpose of this guide is to help college administrators and staff members implement the following two interventions designed to increase summer enrollment rates at their schools: (1) An informational campaign of personalized student communications using email and mail and informed by behavioral science. The campaign simplifies academic,…

This report from JFF with a select group of community college practitioners, makes the case for policymakers, employers and practitioners to invest in and strengthen short-term credentialing programs to rapidly retrain unemployed workers for better career prospects, especially workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes key commitments…

This guide is intended for college financial aid administrators and counselors who help students begin the aid process--filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form, verifying information, and making corrections and other changes to the information reported on the FAFSA. The Federal Student Aid Handbook consists of the…

This white paper encourages board members to take a step back and think about long-term strategies for ensuring that financial aid policies are consistent with institutional mission at the same time that they serve fiscal and enrollment goals. While board members can determine financial aid and enrollment policies only at the broadest level, it is…

College opportunity is key to ensuring that California can meet its economic goals, maintain its global standing, and keep up with technological advances. As California's economy becomes increasingly reliant on a better-educated workforce and further connected to a global marketplace for its services and products, immigrant students are poised to…

Contemporary strategic enrollment management entails planning, implementing, and developing administrative structures to develop and support strategies and tactics to regulate patterns of students entering the institution and through to graduation. It must do so in a way that is both predictable and consistent with the institution's mission and…

"Louisiana Believes," the state's comprehensive plan to prepare students for college and career success, includes a system of related policies and programs that help schools provide students with pathways to future prosperity, give schools the resources to offer these pathways, and reward schools when students achieve their goals. This…

A principle responsibility of a board member is to understand the environment in which his or her institution operates. Today, that environment includes a host of legal risks that every institution of higher education must be prepared to assess and proactively address. Colleges and universities work to contain and manage those risks through such…

The use of data to inform decisionmaking and practice at the school and district levels is now a common feature of reform efforts. Advances in districts' technological capacities have produced data systems that allow a flow of data to and from schools, often to the point of creating an overwhelming flood of information. To make the flow of…