For students that enroll in community colleges with the aspiration to transfer to a 4-year institution and earn a bachelor's degree, navigating the complexities of the transfer process can stymie their ability to achieve their educational goals. One solution implemented by community colleges and universities to support transfer students through…

Community colleges serve more than a significant proportion of Americans who could not otherwise attend colleges by providing access to fulfill their educational goals. Many of the students enrolled in the institutions look to the federal government to finance their educational expenses by obtaining federally guaranteed student loans. The…

Differences in funding mixtures across the United States create widely variant levels of unmet need for students. This research examines gaps of unmet need between 2003-4 and 2013-14, particularly considering the presence of any local funding provisions and Pell Grant funding changes. These findings are also considered across state, community…

The Pell Grant is targeted to students with the greatest financial need, and many policymakers find Pell to be a useful policy lever for promoting access and success for students from lower-income backgrounds. There are several examples where policymakers use Pell eligibility to allocate resources and hold colleges accountable for their outcomes;…

Objective: The purpose of this research is twofold: first, to investigate financially eligible Pell Grant community college students' perceptions of barriers and enablers to student success, and second, to critique the financial aid satisfactory academic progress (SAP) criteria through a cross-case comparison of students who are meeting and are…

This issue of "DataPoints" shows the percent of Pell grant recipients with any federal student loans, by control and level of institutions in the years 2003-04, 2007-08, 2011-12, and 2015-16. The data demonstrate that community college students with Pell grants are less likely to take on student debt than similar students in other…

The state of Michigan has set a goal to increase the percentage of residents with a postsecondary degree or credential to 60 percent by 2030. Achieving that goal will require a concerted, strategic, and multipronged effort. Today, less than 50 percent of residents have attained a postsecondary degree or credential. While making college more…

As the cost of higher education has continued to rise, public interest in the proportional economic return on investment in higher education has also grown. While research associating the quality of education and institutional attributes with graduate earning potentials exists in the university sector, fewer studies have focused on earning…

Nationwide, only 24 percent of community college students earn a degree or certificate within three years of matriculat­ing. Students who enroll in summer classes at the end of the freshman year are more likely to persist and graduate. Summer enrollment enables students to earn additional credits, reducing the time it takes to earn a degree.…

Pell Grants are the cornerstone of federal financial aid for low-income students enrolled in postsecondary education. Currently, these grants are available only to those who seek an initial undergraduate degree or credential lasting at least a typical semester. Because these rules may restrict access to programs providing skills needed for new or…

Pell Grants are the cornerstone of federal financial aid for low-income students enrolled in postsecondary education. Currently, these grants are available only to those who seek an initial undergraduate degree or credential for a program lasting at least a typical semester. Because these rules may restrict access to programs providing skills…

These are the appendices for the report "The Effects of Expanding Pell Grant Eligibility for Short Occupational Training Programs: Results from the Experimental Sites Initiative." Four appendices are included in the document: (1) Implementation of the 2011 Pell Experiments; (2) Study Design and Analytic Approach; (3) Supporting Details…

This study contrasts the socio-economic characteristics of students enrolled at a suburban community college who graduated or transferred to a college or university with the characteristics of those students who did not persist to graduate or transfer to a four year college program. Identified characteristics that could serve as reliable…

Objective: An increasing number of states are adopting performance-based funding (PBF) systems for their public colleges, but there are concerns that PBF dissuades colleges from recruiting and enrolling students with a lower likelihood of success. Some states have attempted to address this concern by providing additional funds for successfully…

In this article, we examine the effects of receiving a modest Pell Grant on financial aid packages, labor supply while in school, and academic outcomes for community college students. Using administrative data from one state, we compare students just above and below the expected family contribution cutoff for receiving a Pell Grant. We find that…