Program Announcement: Postsecondary Education Research CFDA 84.305A

Program Officer:
Dr. Ram Singh
Ram.Singh@ed.gov
(202) 219-2025

Purpose

The Institute intends for the Postsecondary Education research program to address five goals: (1) exploring malleable factors¹ (e.g., programs, practices, policies) that are associated with improving access to, persistence in, or completion of postsecondary education, as well as mediators and moderators of the relations between these factors and student outcomes, for the purpose of identifying potential targets of intervention; (2) developing innovative programs, practices, or policies that are intended to improve access to, persistence in, or completion of postsecondary education; (3) evaluating the efficacy of programs, practices, or policies that are intended to improve access to, persistence in, or completion of postsecondary education; (4) providing evidence on the effectiveness of programs, practices, or policies for improving access to, persistence in, or completion of postsecondary education when they are implemented at scale; and (5) developing and/or validating assessments of cognitive (e.g., problem-solving, writing) and social cognitive (e.g., communication and interpersonal) skills that are outcomes of postsecondary education.

The long-term outcome of this program will be an array of tools and strategies (e.g., assessments, programs, policies) that have been documented to be effective for improving access to, persistence in, or completion of postsecondary education.

Background

Improving participation and persistence in postsecondary education is a national concern, especially for at-risk students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are substantial gaps across income groups in the percentages of high school graduates who enrolled in college the fall semester after high school graduation: 53 percent of students from low-income families, 58 percent from middle-income families, and 80 percent from upper-income families. Similarly, there are differences across racial and ethnic groups in the percentages of high school graduates who enroll in college right after high school graduation: 66 percent of White students, 58 percent of African American students, and 59 percent of Hispanic students. Moreover, there continue to be gaps across income groups in the proportions of students who graduate from college or persist in college five years after their initial enrollment: 61 percent from low-income families, 65 percent from middle-income families, and 71 percent from upper-income families. Across racial and ethnic groups, the five-year graduation or persistence rate also varies: 55 percent for African American students, 77 percent for Asian/Pacific Islander students, 60 percent for Hispanic students, 59 percent for Native American students, and 66 percent for White students (Horn and Berger 2004).

Through the Postsecondary Education research program, the Institute supports research to improve postsecondary access and completion by identifying programs, practices, and policies that are effective for improving access to or persistence in postsecondary education. The types of projects that are appropriate for this program are illustrated by, but not limited to, the examples provided below.

In recent years, a number of innovative programs for improving access to postsecondary education have been implemented. For example, the California State University system has partnered with California's Department of Education and State Board of Education to develop the Early Assessment Program for high school students. Through the Early Assessment Program, students in grade 11 are assessed in English and mathematics to determine their readiness for college-level coursework. Students can use the results of the test to identify skills that they need to work on during their senior year in order to be better prepared for college. Nationwide, many school systems offer dual enrollment or "early college" high school programs that allow a wide range of students to earn a high school diploma while progressing toward an associate degree or certificate. Innovative dropout recovery programs such as Diploma Plus, and Portland Community College's Gateway to College program specifically use dual enrollment to reconnect out-of-school youth with a formal education. However, little rigorous research exists to evaluate the impact such programs have on college enrollment and persistence.

Institutions of higher education have implemented a variety of programs and practices to improve student retention. Many institutions have courses or workshops that focus on building the skills of under-prepared students (e.g., developmental mathematics courses, study skills courses, workshops designed to improve students' general test-taking or note-taking skills). Some programs target freshmen in their first two semesters; other programs may be designed as intensive programs the summer prior to the freshman year. The Institute encourages applications to test the impact of such programs on students' grades, retention, and graduation. Some institutions have policies designed to identify and provide support to students who are struggling early on. Such policies include mandatory roll-taking policies that require (a) instructors to contact students' advisors when students miss a specified number of classes, and (b) advisors to follow-up with students, or policies that require instructors to inform advisors early in the semester if the student is failing so that advisors can be proactive about providing assistance to struggling students. The Institute invites applications to examine the impact of such programs on student retention and graduation.

The Institute encourages research on interventions to provide students and parents with information that may be related to students' choices regarding whether to go to college and where to go to college. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, both high school students and their parents are likely to markedly overestimate the cost of tuition and fees for one year of college (Horn, Chen, and Chapman 2003). Further, among households in the lowest income groups, parents are more likely to report that they are not able to estimate the cost of tuition and among those who do estimate the cost, they are less likely to be within 25 percent of the actual average tuition cost for the type of institution in their state that their student wanted to attend. A number of different types of programs (e.g., parent education, counselors, websites) address students' and parents' access to information about college and planning ahead for college. The Institute encourages research to evaluate the impact of such programs on student enrollment.

A number of states have implemented merit-based scholarship programs intended to provide students with an incentive to perform well in high school and attend college. For example, in 1993, Georgia introduced the Georgia Hope Scholarship program, which covers tuition, allowable mandatory fees, and a book allowance in public colleges to Georgia high school graduates with a B average or better, or a voucher of equal value for students who choose to attend private college. Continued receipt of the scholarship is contingent upon satisfactory academic progress. The introduction of the program was associated with increases in four-year public and private college attendance among young adults residing in Georgia (Cornwell, Mustard and Sridhar 2005). The Institute is interested in supporting rigorous evaluations of such programs.

The high cost of attending college continues to be an important issue in postsecondary education. According to the College Board, in the 2005–2006 academic year, annual prices for undergraduate tuition, fees, room, and board were estimated to be over $12,000 at four-year public colleges and $29,000 at four-year private colleges; for the same year, undergraduates at two-year public institutions on average spent approximately $2,200 a year for tuition and fees (College Board 2005). The Institute invites applications to examine the complex relations between student financial aid programs (including federal, state, and private sources), and access to and completion of postsecondary education. Because financial aid comes from multiple sources, we encourage research on the interactions of aid programs (e.g., how institutions package available sources of financial aid to eligible students) and their subsequent effects on access to and completion of postsecondary education.

Policymakers and higher education administrators seek answers to practical questions regarding the relative impact — both costs and benefits — of alternative approaches to student financial aid on access to and completion of postsecondary education for a wide range of student groups (e.g. traditional, nontraditional, economically disadvantaged). Applicants might consider, for example, the impact of loan financing or loan forgiveness on college completion of at-risk students, or whether extending grant aid eligibility to high school students would spur development of dual enrollment programs and increase college enrollment of at-risk students. As another example, investigators might compare the impact of student financial aid policies (e.g., alternative methods for calculating student financial aid eligibility, the use of merit versus need based criteria for student financial aid) on access to and completion of postsecondary education. Applicants might also examine how the interactions of student financial aid and student support services affect access to and completion of postsecondary education. All 50 states offer tax-deferred plans for saving for college (529 plans) and some states have college saving plans that guarantee full-tuition payment in the future. Who is utilizing these programs? What is the impact of such programs on access to postsecondary education? The Institute also invites rigorous research on new and existing federal and state financial aid programs intending to encourage students from low income families to prepare for, enroll in, and succeed in postsecondary education.

Finally, many colleges and universities have implemented assessments of students' college-level reading, writing, mathematics, and critical thinking skills in order to provide feedback for the improvement of their general education curriculum or for accreditation and accountability purposes. For example, the Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress by ETS, the Collegiate Learning Assessment by the Council for Aid to Education, and the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency by ACT are three commercially available assessments for institutions of higher education. The Institute invites applications to examine the validity and utility of widely used assessments like these. What do these types of assessments predict? What are their effects on institutions and on students? Applications to develop and/or validate such instruments are appropriate for Goal Five under this topic.

References

College Board (2005). Trends in College Pricing 2005. New York, NY: College Board

Cornwell, C. M., Mustard, D. B., & Sridhar, D. (2005, August). The enrollment effects of merit-based financial aid: Evidence from Georgia's Hope scholarship (available at the University of Georgia Web site: http://www.terry.uga.edu/hope/hope.enrollments.pdf, accessed on September 5, 2005).

Horn, L., & Berger, R. (2004). College Persistence on the Rise? Changes in 5-Year Degree Completion and Postsecondary Persistence Rates between 1994 and 2000 (NCES 2005-156). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Horn, L. J., Chen, X., & Chapman, C. (2003). Getting Ready to Pay for College: What Students and Their Parents Know About the Cost of College Tuition and What They Are Doing to Find Out, NCES 2003-030. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2003). Washington, DC: 2003.