Evaluations of Federal Financial Aid Information and Delivery Strategies: An Experiment in the Federal Work Study Program to Encourage Student Jobs in the Private Sector
Contract Information
Current Status:
Discontinued
Duration:
September 2020 – March 2022
Cost:
$300,000
Contract Number:
91990019D0003
Contractor(s):
Abt Associates
Contact:
Although most students work while in postsecondary education, those who are lower income are less likely to have jobs connected to their field of study. To address this inequity and promote more private sector partnerships, the Office of Federal Student Aid conducted an experiment to help colleges participating in the Federal Work Study program (FWS) shift at least some students who receive FWS support from on-campus to off-campus jobs. Under the experiment, colleges that volunteered received additional FWS funds and could seek waivers of certain FWS rules viewed as barriers to expanding students' program-related employment in the private sector — e.g., the maximum hours students may work or share of wages that FWS can pay. The waivers could also be applied to colleges' existing clinical rotation, student teaching, and other course-required work programs, as long as FWS continued to serve students with financial needs. This study was intended to fulfill a requirement that experiments conducted under the Experimental Sites Initiative of the Higher Education Act be evaluated and the results reported to Congress. THIS STUDY WAS DISCONTINUED BECAUSE THE FWS EXPERIMENT ENDED EARLY.
ORIGNAL QUESTIONS (DISCONTINUED)
- What types of colleges participated in the Federal Work Study (FWS) Experiment, which FWS rules were they allowed to waive, and how did they implement those waivers?
- How does student participation in FWS compare to participation before the FWS experiment and to participation in other similar FWS colleges not in the experiment?
- Do FWS students in colleges implementing the waivers engage in more private sector employment, earn higher wages in FWS jobs, complete college at higher rates, or borrow less in student loans than do those in similar colleges not implementing the waivers?
ORIGNAL DESIGN (DISCONTINUED)
This study was intended to describe the participating colleges and students and use a quasi-experimental design to examine how their outcomes change over time compared to colleges not participating in the experiment. The descriptive analysis, including how colleges implemented the FWS waivers, would have been based on surveys of participating colleges and data from annual reporting to the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA). The quasi-experimental analysis would have relied on data collected from FSA's student administrative records and annual reporting on campus-based program expenditures.
Because the study was discontinued, there will be no publications.
Because the study was discontinued, no findings are available.