Each year, the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs completes a survey regarding state-funded expenditures for postsecondary student financial aid. This report, the 47th annual survey, represents data from academic year 2015-16, offering data regarding state-funded expenditures for student financial aid and illustrating the…

Our nation's competitive edge is highly dependent on the success of STEM education and the ability of information technology (IT) graduates to find jobs. The School of Information Technology at Illinois State University (ISU) is strategically positioned to offer S-STEM scholarships to talented, financially disadvantaged students in the IT…

When CME Group Foundation (CME) was formed in 2007 with an endowment from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Trust, its founders set out to engage in grantmaking that would improve education from cradle to career and strengthen the region's economy. During its first decade, nearly a quarter of CME's grants targeted early childhood education with an…

Human capital production is central to economic wellbeing from a national perspective: it improves productivity, spurs technological innovation, and promotes sustainable economic growth over time. Equally important, investments in human capital are central to economic wellbeing at the individual level. College graduates tend to earn more money,…

This quantitative, nonexperimental, expo-facto study examined the relationship of student risk factors and completion or noncompletion of degrees and certificates for first time students who took out loans to pay for college in the fall of 2011 at three rural community colleges, comprising all community colleges in a rural state. Archival student…

Over the previous two decades, state lawmakers have made two fundamental changes to how they finance their public universities. They have shifted more of the costs of higher education to students and their families through higher tuition rates; and created new grant programs that are not solely based on financial need but require prior…

In the 2016 General Session, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 101, High Quality School Readiness Program Expansion, which expanded access to high quality school readiness programs for eligible students. This program was funded with $120,000 ongoing from the Education Fund for program administration and $9.0 million in Temporary Assistance for…

In 2004 and 2005, the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education (Pell Institute), sponsored by the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE), published two editions of "Indicators of Opportunity in Higher Education." In 2015, the commitment to documenting trends in higher education equity was renewed by publishing…

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other minority institutions (MIs) represent a valuable resource to expand the Department of Defense's (DoD) government and extramural workforce and science and technology enterprise. The more than 400 public and private HBCUs, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions,…

Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students often participate in programs being evaluated, yet they are generally excluded from being involved in the evaluation process. In addition, the staff of organizations that conduct evaluations are predominately White and often implement research methods that may perpetuate racial biases and unequal power…

This article recovers a 1972 essay from James Moffett entitled "Who Counts?" that the National Council of Teachers of English commissioned at the onset of US standards and accountability reforms. The essay historicises NCTE's positions on teacher accountability by comparing its recent positions on teacher evaluation and the Common Core…

In November 2014, New York voters approved the Smart Schools Bond Act, which authorizes up to $2 billion in state general obligation borrowing to finance school district purchases of computers and other classroom technology; improve schools' high-speed and wireless internet links; install "high-tech smart security features" in school…

Spiraling costs and lack of understanding of how to manage those costs lead many students to never enroll, or drop out before completing their degrees. While state and federal funding can help to offset college costs, low-income students often are unaware that institutional aid can significantly lower costs and in some cases make college…

College can seem out of reach for many low-income students. Too often they believe college is unaffordable and unattainable. It is no surprise then that students from the bottom socioeconomic quartile are eight times less likely to earn a bachelor's degree than students from the top socioeconomic quartile (7.4% versus 60%). Colleges and…

Grant aid reduces the financial burden of human capital investment in postsecondary education. Theory suggests grant aid should substitute for other financial resources such as borrowing and labor market participation. Although studies have individually examined the impact of grant aid on hours of paid work and on borrowing for education, students…