The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted learning for millions of students, educators, and families who had to navigate modified in-person and virtual schooling, often in difficult circumstances. The pandemic's effects continue to reverberate across the nation and produce challenges for schools that will likely be felt for years to come. In many respects,…

The Public Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) program provides cash benefits to federal, state, and local law enforcement officers; firefighters; employees of emergency management agencies; and members of emergency medical services agencies who are killed or permanently and totally disabled as the result of personal injuries sustained in the line of…

As the early education coordinator for Prince George's County Public Schools, Judith P. Hoyer recognized the gaps in available services for low-income families. In the 1990s, she created a central location in Adelphi, Maryland, for early childhood services, thus fostering cooperation of governmental and private agencies around the needs of local…

In January 2022, AASA, The School Superintendents Association, launched the second part of its multi-series survey focused on how district leaders across America are utilizing American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to respond to the pandemic and in particular, address student learning recovery. Hundreds of superintendents responded to this survey, which…

Postsecondary education is one of the largest investments that students and their families make, with average yearly cost of attendance--including tuition, fees, room and board--of just under $17,000 to attend a public institution in the 2015-16 academic year. In the context of increasing college costs, aid dollars have failed to keep pace with…

This report is one of the first to examine federal student loan repayments for graduate institutions. While the data are not without limitations and this report is based only on two lists of 20 institutions each, the data reveal some important findings. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have some of the weakest rates of loan…

Supporting bachelor's degree completion for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds has been a focus for a number of selective four-year colleges and universities. Bachelor's degree completion rates for recipients of federal Pell Grant funds have been reported by the National Center for Education Statistics for a decade. Statistical data…

A growing share of high school graduates have enrolled in college over the past three decades, a positive trend driven primarily by enrollment increases amongst students from low- and moderate-income families. At the same time, the net cost of college has increased significantly--for a population that is now less able to afford those…

The century-old College Entrance Examination Board (College Board) sponsors, develops, and administers standardized testing programs, most famously the "SAT suite of tests," which includes the SAT college admission test and the "pre-SAT," or PSAT, and the more than thirty Advanced- Placement (AP) courses and exams that…

The need for social and emotional learning (SEL) has increased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unprecedented school closings have led to social isolation, illness, and economic hardship -- exacerbating anxiety -- and reopening plans continue to cause uncertainty and stress. These factors heighten the urgency to equip educators and school…

In this qualitative case study, we employ 29 semistructured interviews and an array of supplemental data to explore why and how COVID-19 shaped school and community practices around student and family homelessness in Houston, Texas. Drawing on Small's notion of organizational embeddedness, we find that COVID-19 fundamentally altered school and…

Parent PLUS loans are a growing concern due to their limited income-driven repayment protections and their potential to maintain longstanding racial wealth gaps. Previous research has examined factors associated with student debt burdens of college graduates, but no research has examined factors related to parent borrowing for college. In this…

The 2020 COABE Digital Literacy and Technology Integration Strand Meeting convened in highly unusual times. Firstly, adult basic skills programs across the country were in the midst of operating completely remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and, additionally, the country was searching for a path forward after a national racial reckoning…

This two-page executive summary highlights primary points from the report, "Connecting Community College Students to SNAP: Lessons from States That Have Expanded SNAP Access and Minimized the 'Work for Food' Requirement." The report recommends two primary pathways state policymakers, education agencies, college administrators, and…

The Agricultural Act of 2014 authorized $200 million for the development, implementation, and evaluation of up to 10 pilot projects to test innovative strategies to reduce dependency on and increase employment among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants. The 10 States that received grants were California, Delaware, Georgia,…