Impact of Federal Student Aid on Completion Rates in the California Community Colleges System PDF Download
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Author: Lundon Creshett Jackson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 482
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Book Description
The purpose of this study was to determine the overall impact of student aid, the level of impact of federal grants and loans, and identify any correlation between the price of attendance and federal student aid (FSA). Completion rates in the California Community Colleges (CCC) system was the dependent variable and measurement of impact. This nonexperimental quantitative study used existing data from cohorts in academic years 2000 through 2006 from Title IV institutions within the CCC system. Several findings emerged from this study including: 1. A significant population access student aid and completion rates increase with the average award amount; 2. completion is not supported when fewer students access student aid and affordability from lower fees causes an increase in the student population; 3. the population accessing federal grant aid provide accountability in completion, but not federal student loans; 4. students attending the CCC system access federal grants more, but there has been a gradual shift to federal loans; and 5. a statistically significant relationship between price of attendance and the average amount awarded through federal grants and loans positively impact completion rates. Since there is a dearth of knowledge on completion rates and accountability of FSA these findings are significant. As the costs associated with enrollment in higher education continue to rise the role of FSA has become an increasingly important topic of concern. Findings and recommendations from this study can be used as a tool for policymakers and educational leaders to make informed decisions about FSA funding. This analysis of accountability systems and affordability addresses equity in not only access, but also success in the CCC system.
Author: Lundon Creshett Jackson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 482
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Book Description
The purpose of this study was to determine the overall impact of student aid, the level of impact of federal grants and loans, and identify any correlation between the price of attendance and federal student aid (FSA). Completion rates in the California Community Colleges (CCC) system was the dependent variable and measurement of impact. This nonexperimental quantitative study used existing data from cohorts in academic years 2000 through 2006 from Title IV institutions within the CCC system. Several findings emerged from this study including: 1. A significant population access student aid and completion rates increase with the average award amount; 2. completion is not supported when fewer students access student aid and affordability from lower fees causes an increase in the student population; 3. the population accessing federal grant aid provide accountability in completion, but not federal student loans; 4. students attending the CCC system access federal grants more, but there has been a gradual shift to federal loans; and 5. a statistically significant relationship between price of attendance and the average amount awarded through federal grants and loans positively impact completion rates. Since there is a dearth of knowledge on completion rates and accountability of FSA these findings are significant. As the costs associated with enrollment in higher education continue to rise the role of FSA has become an increasingly important topic of concern. Findings and recommendations from this study can be used as a tool for policymakers and educational leaders to make informed decisions about FSA funding. This analysis of accountability systems and affordability addresses equity in not only access, but also success in the CCC system.
Author: Lundon Jackson
Publisher: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
ISBN: 9783659293597
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 184
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Book Description
As an instrument of access, the Federal Student Aid (FSA) system is a patchwork of policy that has evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry. There is little argument FSA increases access to higher education for those living in poverty, but there is a dearth of knowledge on its impact to completion rates. This research focuses on the California Community Colleges (CCC) system which enrolls a quarter of all undergraduates in the nation. In examining the CCC and FSA systems there was three objectives: (1) link affordability and access to aid with completion, (2) find accountability from the amount of aid awarded with completion, and (3) correlate FSA as a tool of persistence to promote equity in both access and success in higher education. The enormity of students accessing both the CCC and FSA systems has a direct link to the economic and workforce outcomes within the state, but also on a national and international level. Therefore, it is essential to understand how these two systems amalgamate and impact student outcomes.
Author: California Community Colleges. Financial Aid Policy Task Force
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Community college students
Languages : en
Pages : 44
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Book Description
Author: Eric Stern
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 170
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Book Description
At California community colleges, books can cost more than tuition. At less than $80 a class, California charges the lowest community college tuition in the country, a testament to the state's commitment to providing its residents with an affordable college education. While the low tuition may help get students into the classroom, the tuition policy may not be helping students stay in the classroom. Studies have shown that California community college students are dropping one of every five courses midway through the semester. Policy analysts have suggested that higher tuition might motivate students to choose their courses more carefully and to stick out tougher courses. This study examines how price and other factors contribute to a community college's course-completion rate. Using data obtained from the California Community College Chancellor's Office, course completion is modeled using regression analysis with broad casual inputs (price, student demographics, school characteristics, and economic conditions). The statistical analysis is used to isolate how tuition changes in California community colleges from 2002-2008 can influence course-completion rates. The analysis confirmed a statistically significant, positive relationship between tuition and course completion. Though the predictive effect is small -- and is likely moderated by the high percentage of students not paying any tuition due to fee waivers -- small changes can carry long-term impacts on a community college system on the scale of California. With students enrolled in 4 million courses, a 38 percent tuition hike approved by the state Legislature in 2011 could lead to students completing up to 10,000 more classes statewide and staying on track to transfer to a university, earn a degree, or complete other goals. Larger tuition increases that have been proposed would motivate students to complete even more courses. An even larger potential impact on course completion could occur if proposed changes to the state's fee waiver policy are made, such as requiring waiver recipients to make satisfactory academic progress or reducing the number of students not paying any tuition by replacing the fee waiver with a traditional need-based financial aid model.
Author: Laura W. Perna
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000978753
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 311
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How appropriate for today and for the future are the policies and practices of higher education that largely assume a norm of traditional-age students with minimal on-campus, or no, work commitments?Despite the fact that work is a fundamental part of life for nearly half of all undergraduate students – with a substantial number of “traditional” dependent undergraduates in employment, and working independent undergraduates averaging 34.5 hours per week – little attention has been given to how working influences the integration and engagement experiences of students who work, especially those who work full-time, or how the benefits and costs of working differ between traditional age-students and adult students.The high, and increasing, prevalence and intensity of working among both dependent and independent students raises a number of important questions for public policymakers, college administrators, faculty, academic advisors, student services and financial aid staff, and institutional and educational researchers, including: Why do so many college students work so many hours? What are the characteristics of undergraduates who work? What are the implications of working for students’ educational experiences and outcomes? And, how can public and institutional policymakers promote the educational success of undergraduate students who work? This book offers the most complete and comprehensive conceptualization of the “working college student” available. It provides a multi-faceted picture of the characteristics, experiences, and challenges of working college students and a more complete understanding of the heterogeneity underlying the label “undergraduates who work” and the implications of working for undergraduate students’ educational experiences and outcomes. The volume stresses the importance of recognizing the value and contribution of adult learners to higher education, and takes issue with the appropriateness of the term “non-traditional” itself, both because of the prevalence of this group, and because it allows higher education institutions to avoid considering changes that will meet the needs of this population, including changes in course offerings, course scheduling, financial aid, and pedagogy.
Author: Elizabeth Zeiger Friedmann
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781369616408
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
More students are enrolling in college than ever before, and the returns to a college degree are significant, including higher wages, lower unemployment rates, better health outcomes and inter-generational improvements. In 2012, college graduates on average earned $17,500 more annually than a high school graduate (Taylor, Parker, Morin, Fry, Patten & Brown, 2014). Broad access institutions, which include community colleges and nonselective four-year institutions, represent the majority of college students and institutions. But the number of students completing college degrees has not risen as quickly as college enrollment, especially for certain groups. Low-income and minority students are less likely to complete degrees, even after controlling for student characteristics (Bailey & Dynarski, 2011). My dissertation is comprised of three papers examining financial aid at California community colleges. California has a long history of public support for higher education. California’s 1965 Master Plan defined public higher education segments with the commitment for providing public higher education for all willing and able students, including the University of California (UC)—reserved for the State’s top one-eighth of high school graduates, California State University (CSU)—reserved for the State’s top one-third of high school graduates, and the California Community College (CCC) systems—reserved for anyone “capable of benefiting from instruction”. Each of my three papers uses administrative data on the census of all community college students in California collected by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office. California’s community college system is the largest in the nation with 113 institutions serving over 2.1 million students each year. Nationwide, over 10 million students enrolled in a community college in 2012, representing 37 percent of all college students (National Center for Education Statistics, 2015). But in California, the share of students enrolling in community college is much higher; 60 percent of all California college students were enrolled in a community college in 2012 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2015). The first paper of this dissertation provides a descriptive landscape of financial aid at California community colleges, including trends in financial aid receipt, differences in student characteristics of aid recipients and combinations of financial aid programs. Historically, the California Community College system had the lowest two-year fees in the nation, but fees have more than doubled since 2002 (Ma, Baum, Pender & Bell, 2015). Results from this descriptive work reveal a complex picture of financial aid receipt among California community college students. The second paper closely examines the effect of requiring the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at one community college campus on a variety of outcomes. In 2002, Barstow Community College began requiring the FAFSA for all students applying for the state fee waiver program. To estimate the effect of this policy change on Pell Grant receipt, I use a difference-in-differences approach comparing Barstow to a similar nearby college before and after the policy change. Results show that the policy change had negative effects on FAFSA submission, fee waiver receipt and Pell-eligibility for all students in the first year after the policy change. But analysis for two years after the program was enacted indicates that the negative effects might be short-term, and could possibly rebound after the policy is in place for longer. These results provide valuable insight into the effects of FAFSA’s complexity and institutional policies on financial aid receipt. Finally, the third paper of this dissertation examines the effects of the Year-round Pell Grant program. Pell recipients are typically only eligible for one award per year. However, in 2008, Congress authorized the Year-round Pell Grant, which allowed students to receive a second Pell Grant in the same fiscal year. This paper uses a difference-in-differences approach to estimate the effect of the Year-round Pell Grant on California community college summer enrollment. Overall, results from this paper show that the Year-round Pell Grant had a positive significant effect on short-term summer enrollment, with larger effects for the lowest-income Pell Grant recipients and students with higher enrollment intensity. There is interest in reinstating the program, but there is very limited research on the effects of the initial program. This paper provides evidence of how the Year-round Pell Grant increased community college summer enrollment. Overall, this dissertation contributes to the limited research on take-up and effects of financial aid at the two-year level. Given the large numbers of students who begin their postsecondary schooling at community colleges, many of them low-income, it is useful to investigate the effects of financial aid at these broad access institutions. California is an ideal setting for this study because over 20 percent of the nation’s community college students are in California, and its 113 campuses represent an enormous amount of institutional diversity.
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Labor and Human Resources. Subcommittee on Education, Arts, and Humanities
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Federal aid to higher education
Languages : en
Pages : 210
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Author: Jennie H. Woo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 11
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Book Description
This study examines whether financial aid, specifically federal Pell grants, is associated with academic success for low-income community college students in California. Previous studies in this series of MPR Research Briefs have examined transfer patterns and the types of financial aid typically received by students in this sector. This report focused on low-income students, identified as such because they received need-based financial aid in their first year of enrollment. Almost all students at California community colleges who received financial aid got it from one of two sources: federal Pell grants and Board of Governors (BOG) fee waivers. This study is based on data files from the California Community College Chancellor's Office Management Information System (COMIS). The study examined data for two student cohorts. The first cohort was composed of those who first enrolled in a California community college in 2000-01 and had outcome variables three and six years later (in 2003 and 2006), and the second cohort was students who began in 2003-04 and had outcomes three years later (in 2006). This permits extensive examination of the characteristics of aid recipients for two time periods, as well as an analysis of the academic progress of a group of low-income students over a significant period of time. (Contains 5 tables and 1 chart.).
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 64
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Author: Natalie Rose Wagner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 352
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The purpose of this study has been to identify how financial aid and other factors influence college graduation rates, and to make recommendations on policies that could be used to increase graduation rates at public colleges in California. I obtained data on all four-year public degree-granting colleges in the United States and used regression analysis to identify the factors that impact college graduation rates and measure the magnitude of the impact to determine which factors in my data set are the largest contributors to graduation rates. My regression analysis included financial aid factors (the percentage of students at a college receiving different forms of aid, average amounts received, and the percentage of financial aid dollars distributed to different income groups), college factors (selectivity, tuition and fees, total enrollment, remedial services, etc), student factors (percentage of students at the college in different age, race/ethnicity, and gender groups); and social factors, which are characteristics of the state in which the student resides (percentage in different age and race ethnicity categories, the percentage of individuals who own their home, percentage single parents, etc). While my initial intent was to focus primarily on financial aid factors, I found these variables to have a smaller impact on graduation rates than many of the other explanatory variables included in my model. After identifying the impact that these factors have on college graduation rates, I used my regression model to identify colleges that are doing much better than predicted (and those doing worse) at graduating students in six years, all factors held constant. I studied the top and bottom performing schools in the UC and CSU systems and identified things that the top colleges are doing to increase graduation rates that were not controlled for in my regression model. As I was studying the colleges, I looked at various types of support provided to students including financial support (financial aid) and also social and academic support services. I also looked at the mission and culture of the colleges doing well compared to those doing poorly. My study did not lead to specific recommendations on additional policy changes that should be made to California0́9s state financial aid programs and services to increase graduation rates. However, I found some differences in the information and resources provided to students regarding financial aid between the best and worst performing colleges. In my concluding chapter, I make recommendations on things that California's public colleges could do to increase graduation rates, both related and unrelated to financial aid. I also provide some general policy recommendations for the state that could be implemented to increase the percentage of students at public colleges in California that earn a bachelor's degree in six years.
