Search

The Tuition Opportunity Program for Students (subsequently renamed the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, also known as TOPS), Louisiana's merit-based student aid program, was created via Act 1375 of the 1997 Regular Legislative Session. The first freshman class to receive TOPS awards entered postsecondary education in the fall of 1998. Act 1202 of the 2001 Regular Legislative Session charged the Board of Regents (BOR) with developing a uniform TOPS reporting system for policy analysis and program evaluation to provide accurate data and statistics relative to the program's impact on the state and students. To satisfy the reporting requirements, BOR staff developed interfaces between the major systems needed to identify and track TOPS students through the postsecondary education enrollment cycle. In addition to mandating the development of a TOPS reporting system, Act 1202 also required the BOR to prepare a report on various aspects of the TOPS Program. This report contains data from public and private institutions, except for graduation rates, retention rates, and time-to-degree. Private institutions are currently not required to report this information to the Board of Regents. In this year's report, several improvements to the granularity of the underlying data. These improved data have allowed us to refine the calculations of retention, graduation, and time-to-degree. These subtle changes in methodology should be taken into account when comparing this report to previous reports.

This study leverages national data and a quasi-experimental design to examine the influence of enrolling in an exclusively online degree program on students' likelihood of completing their degree. We find that enrolling in an exclusively online degree program had a negative influence on students' likelihood of completing their bachelor's degree or any degree when compared to their otherwise-similar peers who enrolled in at least some face-to-face courses. The negative relationship between exclusively online enrollment and students' likelihood of bachelor's degree completion was relatively consistent among White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, low-income, and military students. Findings focused solely on those students enrolled in exclusively online degree programs revealed that the negative influence of exclusively online enrollment was exacerbated when the student attended a for-profit four-year institution.

In this report, AIR shares an exploratory analysis of how the past and present experiences of adult learners of color shape their perceptions of college and decisions they make. Existing research highlights some common motivations, strengths, and barriers for adult learners (see, e.g., Patterson, 2018); however, it does not deeply explore the full educational journeys of adult learners, which begin long before they enroll in postsecondary institutions as adults. In addition, much of the current research does not focus explicitly on adult learners of color, and when it does, it focuses more on learners' experiences once they are enrolled, rather than exploring their full trajectories and the key decisions they make along the way. The small number of studies that have focused explicitly on adult learners of color have identified unique postsecondary issues, including the desire of these learners to earn credit for prior learning assessment in foreign languages and the negative effects of classroom climates (Coker, 2003; Jain & Crisp, 2018; Klein-Collins, 2020). These research insights underscore the importance of examining the interplay between past and present experiences in shaping adult learners' perceptions and decisions around college and education.

This study assesses the impact of involuntary job loss on college persistence by leveraging different job-loss timings relative to a student's college enrollment decision. We find that job loss increases the probability that a working college student leaves college before attaining a degree, but access to short-term credit through credit card loans buffers this liquidity effect. By restricting credit supply to college students, the CARD Act of 2009 has inadvertently inhibited the ability of liquidity-constrained students to remain in college when their earnings unexpectedly fall, resulting in a stronger liquidity effect of job loss on college persistence over the last decade.

In fall 2016, CAPR began a randomized controlled trial of multiple measures assessment (MMA) in community colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) to learn whether MMA yields placement determinations that lead to better student outcomes than a system based on test scores alone. In 2020, a report was released on students' outcomes after three terms. CAPR then launched a follow-up study to estimate outcomes for a longer time period. In this follow-up study, student outcomes, including college-level math and English enrollment and completion and college-level credit attainment, were tracked for at least nine terms from the time of testing, through spring 2021. The findings were disaggregated by race/ethnicity, Pell recipient status, and gender subgroups; a cost analysis of MMA was also conducted. This brief focuses on "bump-zone" findings--those for the subset of students whose placements changed (or would have changed) under MMA. The study finds that--four and a half years after random assignment--students who were "bumped up" into college-level math and English courses through MMA were much more likely to have enrolled in and completed a college-level course (with a grade of C or higher) than similar business-as-usual group students. The benefits of MMA were likely driven primarily by increased access to college-level courses rather than by any improved accuracy from using MMA. Regardless of subject area, program group students who were bumped up through MMA had better outcomes than similar students in the business-as-usual group, and program group students who were bumped down through MMA had worse outcomes than similar business-as-usual group students. It is important to recognize that MMA can be designed in a way that promotes more access and that prevents students from receiving a lower placement. [For the accompanying working paper, see ED632523.]

Multiple measures assessment (MMA) has gained considerable momentum over the past decade as an alternative to traditional test-based procedures for placing incoming students into developmental or college-level coursework in math and English at broad-access colleges. Compared to standardized tests, which measure student performance at a single point in time, MMA (which often emphasizes high school GPA as a measure) provides a more holistic picture of students' academic preparation. Despite positive impacts on student outcomes that have been found by recent research on MMA, questions remain about whether the positive effects of MMA are sustained over time. This study--a follow-up to prior research using the same sample of students--employs a randomized controlled trial to investigate whether algorithmic MMA placement used at seven State University of New York (SUNY) community colleges led to better student outcomes, for up to four and a half years after randomization, than a system based on test scores alone. Nearly 13,000 incoming students who arrived at the seven colleges in fall 2016, spring 2017, and fall 2017 took placement tests and were randomly assigned to be placed using either the status quo method (business-as-usual group) or the alternative, algorithmic MMA method (program group). Using this sample, we estimate the overall treatment effects on placement into, enrollment in, and completion of college-level math and English as well as effects on other outcomes. We conduct similar analyses on race/ethnicity, Pell recipient status, and gender subgroups. We also descriptively examine the proportion of program group students who were bumped up (i.e., their placement changed from a developmental course placement to a college-level course placement) and bumped down (i.e., their placement changed from a college-level course placement to a developmental course placement) by the MMA algorithm, and we perform a cost-effectiveness analysis. We find that the MMA method used at the colleges improved access to and success in college-level courses and that lower cut scores in English rather than math are associated with larger and longer lasting impacts on completion of college-level coursework. While MMA improved outcomes among student subgroups, it had little to no impact on gaps in outcomes between subgroups. We also find that bumped-up students had substantially better outcomes in both math and English, while bumped-down students had substantially worse outcomes. Our results suggest that increased access to college-level courses is the driving factor in the positive outcomes experienced by program group students and that placement into standalone developmental courses can have detrimental effects on student outcomes. In the discussion of the study's results, we make recommendations for adopting MMA at colleges. Implemented together with other initiatives to support students, MMA can be a first step on the path to success for incoming students. [For the accompanying research brief, see ED632528.]

This annual report looks closely at how Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students are progressing on the path to and through high school and college. In particular, the report examines three key milestones--high school graduation, college enrollment, and college completion--and tracks how rates on these milestones have changed across time. These rates are then used to calculate an updated Post-secondary Attainment Index (PAI) which represents the proportion of current CPS ninth-graders who would complete any degree or certificate from a two-year or four-year college within 10 years, if current rates of attainment were to hold constant over the next decade. The 2021 PAI is calculated using the most recent available data: 2021 high school graduation rates, college enrollment rates for 2021 high school graduates, and rates of college completion for 2014 high school graduates.

This report analyzes access through the lens of enrollment for Black residents who are between the ages of 18-24. At The Education Trust, it is believed enrollment is just one component of higher education access, and that retention, completion, and student outcomes should be considered as well. While nearly 74% of the institutions in the sample have increased their Black undergraduate student enrollment since 2000, findings show that these increases were slight, and that overall, very little progress has been made. The overwhelming majority of the nation's most selective private colleges and universities remain inaccessible for Black first-time, full-time undergraduate students. From 2000 to 2020, the percentage of institutions receiving D's and F's for Black student access only fell by one percentage point, from 81% to 80%. See Black Student Appendix for a comprehensive list of the access grades, scores, and enrollment benchmark data for each institution. The lingering underrepresentation of Black students is especially concerning, since the Supreme Court has banned the use of race as a factor in higher education admissions. Already, the detrimental impacts of banning affirmative action in states like California, where Black student enrollment plummeted following the 1996 adoption of Proposition 209, has been seen. Additionally, it is known that boosting racial and ethnic diversity has a positive effect on campus racial climate and student success, so making these institutions more accessible for Black students would benefit all students.

Pursuing postsecondary education is complicated for adult learners with children, also known as parenting adult learners (PALs). PALs must consider family expenses in addition to college expenses and make tough decisions about how to spend their time across their academic, work, and family responsibilities. Nonetheless, PALs are highly motivated, are resilient, and feel that earning a credential will improve the economic outlook for their family. This project leverages new data from AIR's recent survey of adult learners and one-on-one interviews with a subset of PALs. Building on a broad research base on the experiences of parenting adult learners, results from this research point to three ways practitioners and policymakers can better align programs and resources to this student population: (1) consider practices that encourage a family-friendly environment; (2) tailor outreach to parenting adult learners; and (3) collect and examine data on parenting students. [This report was produced by the Center for Applied Research in Postsecondary Education (CARPE).]

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is the nation's largest network of public charter schools. KIPP began as a network of charter middle schools designed to serve underserved communities, with the goal of closing achievement gaps and preparing students to succeed in college. KIPP has since expanded its model to include elementary and high schools in most regions, and expanded its goals to include preparing students to persist in multiple postsecondary pathways. In this report, we present the results of the second phase of a long-term tracking study that follows 2,066 students who applied to enter 21 oversubscribed KIPP middle schools through an admission lottery in 2008, 2009, or 2011. [For the first phase study "Long-Term Impacts of KIPP Middle Schools on College Enrollment and Early College Persistence," see ED603636.]

"A Dream Derailed? Investigating the Causal Effects of Student Protection Authorization Policies on Student Outcomes after College Closure" is the third and final of three reports from a collaborative research team of State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, seeking to quantify the impacts of college closures on students' subsequent postsecondary enrollment and completion outcomes and to identify the policy levers states may have to support students who experience a closure. This report incorporates the state authorization policy context to ascertain if policy interventions can ameliorate the negative impacts of closures on students. It uses the treatment and control samples developed for the second report and adds a longitudinal dataset capturing state authorization policies related to student protections. [For the second report, "A Dream Derailed? Investigating the Causal Effects of College Closures on Student Outcomes," see ED629845.]

Associate degrees and credentials in Information Technology (IT) have the potential to open up high-wage and high-opportunity labor market opportunities for learners. Yet structural barriers in access to and completion of these degrees and credentials continue to make it difficult for Black learners and workers to access and thrive in these programs. To learn more about opportunities and barriers along the pathways to tech careers for Black Americans, Jobs for the Future (JFF) conducted research exploring Black men's and women's enrollment and retention in, and completion of, postsecondary IT credential programs by institution and over time. The authors drew from several years of restricted-use National Student Clearinghouse data to conduct this analysis, along with focus groups with administrators, staff, and faculty at five colleges that have shown some promise in supporting Black learners into and through technology programs. The research findings confirm that Black learner participation in associate degree and credential IT programs across the country is limited. In addition, Black learner retention in and completion from these programs is also low. From the focus groups, it was learned that for most of the schools in the sample, race was not a significant or primary factor informing the development of strategies, policies, and programs to support learners. Rather, schools focused on other aspects of student need (socioeconomic, academic, social, emotional) through what could be called a "race-neutral" lens. While there were some noted exceptions to this--most prominently the acknowledged need for Black mentors and role models, especially Black men in IT, and more resources to reinforce such programs--race was not at the forefront of efforts to support students. When it came to women in IT, gender was also not a significant or prominent factor for policy or programmatic consideration. [This research was supported by Capital One.]

Few interventions reduce inequality in reading achievement, let alone higher order thinking skills, among adolescents. We study "policy debate"--an extracurricular activity focused on improving middle and high schoolers' critical thinking, argumentation, and policy analysis skills--in Boston schools serving large concentrations of economically-disadvantaged students of color. Student fixed effects estimates show debate had positive impacts on ELA test scores of 0.13 SD, equivalent to 68% of a full year of average 9th grade learning. Gains were concentrated on analytical more than rote subskills. We find no harm to math, attendance, or disciplinary records, and evidence of positive effects on high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment. Impacts were largest among students who were lowest achieving prior to joining debate.

America's colleges and universities are at a crossroads. The number of schools closing their doors continues to grow driven by the declining number of students pursuing a bachelor's. This situation is expected to worsen because of a number of factors: (1) Starting in 2025 the U.S. will face the so-called "enrollment cliff," in which the population of college aid students will drop by 15% over four years. Colleges can expect to lose over 575,000 students over that four-year time span; (2) The strong labor market has led more high school graduates to delay indefinitely their pursuit of a bachelor's degree; and (3) Young Americans have become increasingly skeptical of the value of a college degree. The rising cost of college and the amount of debt students are required to take in order to graduate has re-enforced this viewpoint. Paul Weinstein, Jr. argues for schools to streamline their costs and pass some of the savings on to students in the form of increased scholarships, lower tuition, or a combination of both. Specifically, colleges could cut non-faculty positions by 1% per year over the next five years and use the savings to reduce tuition.

This research builds a narrative of a nationwide study on tuition waiver and tuition assistance programs. The authors administered a survey to long-standing and newly implemented tuition waiver programs within universities that identified limitations and opportunities. The purpose of this study is to highlight the varied approaches to administering tuition waivers for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students. This study will inform how tuition waiver initiatives impact AI/AN student success at mainstream institutions of higher education. The research questions that guided this study are: (1) How are active tuition waivers for American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) students administered? (a) What are the criteria of tuition waivers? and (2) How have active tuition waivers impacted AI/AN student enrollment and success? This study affirms tuition waivers are impactful for AI/AN students. Tuition waivers are specific to the institution and both internal and external factors, such as federal or state legislation or existing relationships with Tribal nations, including local or regional proximity to the institution. This research provides context and support for Washington State to consider implementing a statewide tuition waiver to broaden Native student access to higher education.

High-performing first-generation and economically disadvantaged students are more likely to attend colleges and universities that are less competitive than their academic qualifications allow, which makes them less likely to graduate. EMERGE is a multiyear, personalized college advising program that aims to address this problem by preparing academically high-performing first-generation and economically disadvantaged students to attend and graduate from the nation's most selective colleges and universities. The costs associated with this high-touch approach warrant investigating how EMERGE compares with low-touch information packets and general district support. This first-ever causal study of EMERGE compared students who were admitted to HISD's EMERGE program with comparable students who applied but were not admitted and were close to the admission cutoff. The analyses showed students admitted to HISD's EMERGE program were significantly more likely to apply to selective colleges, submit more applications to selective colleges, and enroll in selective colleges. Information packets were ineffective.

In this study, we examine an at-scale effort to encourage the formation of career pathways in California, with the goal of estimating the initiative's causal effects on community college enrollment. We leverage a discontinuous assignment rule used to award grant funds to obtain credibly causal estimates of an ambitious $500 million effort to expand and establish career and technical education pathways between K-12 and community colleges. The competitive grant application process used a standardized rubric, and those receiving a score above a predetermined threshold were awarded funding (i.e., treatment group) while those just below received no funding (i.e., control group), allowing for a regression discontinuity (RD) design. We found that successful grantees did not experience overall enrollment increases in postsecondary partnerships; however, there were enrollment increases of 13.5 percent to 14.8 percent in CTE health sector courses, the program targeted the most for expansion. Manufacturing, and information communication technology, the other programs with the most expanded offerings, experienced no increases in postsecondary enrollment. The enrollment increases for the health sector were concentrated amongst female students in line with earlier findings by Bonilla (2020) documenting reductions in high school dropout rates for female students. These findings suggest that partnerships between K-12 schools and postsecondary institutions may be a viable avenue for increasing alignment between enrollment and high-growth sectors.

There is a growing interest in ensuring that students are prepared for college and a career when they finish high school. Research identified several indicators that are associated with college preparedness including attendance, grade point average (GPA), and test scores. However, it is difficult to use these indicators to determine the preparedness level of the nation's students in general. This study used results from National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics assessment, the "gold standard" assessing what students know and can do in grade 12 to establish college preparedness benchmarks. This study linked ninth-grade student background data and school-reported high school and postsecondary transcript data from the National High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) to student item responses on the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics assessment to examine the relationship between college preparedness and NAEP mathematics achievement. NAEP scale scores imputed for all HSLS:09 participants via marginal maximum likelihood regression analyses were used to predict college preparedness. This study extended the earlier investigations of college preparedness based on NAEP grade 12 mathematics data from the prediction of college enrollment alone to the prediction of additional postsecondary outcomes including remedial course-taking and first-year college GPA based on postsecondary transcript data. Defining college preparedness as enrolling in a 2- or 4-year college without remedial course-taking and acquiring a first-year college GPA of 2.7 or higher as did National Assessment Governing Board, this study showed that the probability of college preparedness increased from 26 percent for students performing at the NAEP Basic level to 58 percent at the NAEP Proficient level and 87 percent at the NAEP Advanced level. The probabilities at preparedness increased when the definition of college preparedness omitted remedial course-taking. Although similar patterns were observed for various student groups including race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status, there were some differences in results across groups. Since the report shows the probability of college preparedness (under various definitions) at each NAEP achievement level, it is thereby also providing important validity information for these NAEP achievement levels.

The Accountability Plan is an annual report that is closely aligned with the Board of Governors' 2025 System Strategic Plan. This report enhances the System's commitment to accountability and strategic planning by fostering greater coordination between institutional administrators, University Boards of Trustees and the Board of Governors regarding each institution's direction and priorities as well as performance expectations and outcomes on institutional and System-wide goals. Contents include: (1) Introduction; (2) Strategy; (3) Performance-Based Funding Metrics; (4) Key Performance Indicators; (5) Enrollment Planning; (6) Academic Program Coordination; and (7) Definitions. [For "University of North Florida Accountability Plan, 2022," see ED622126.]

The Accountability Plan is an annual report that is closely aligned with the Board of Governors' 2025 System Strategic Plan. This report enhances the System's commitment to accountability and strategic planning by fostering greater coordination between institutional administrators, University Boards of Trustees and the Board of Governors regarding each institution's direction and priorities as well as performance expectations and outcomes on institutional and System-wide goals. Contents include: (1) Introduction; (2) Strategy; (3) Performance-Based Funding Metrics; (4) Preeminent Research University Funding Metrics; (5) Key Performance Indicators; (6) Enrollment Planning; (7) Academic Program Coordination; and (8) Definitions. [For "University of Florida Accountability Plan, 2022," see ED622123.]

Government programs impose eligibility requirements to balance the goals of improving welfare while minimizing waste. We study the impact of eligibility monitoring in the context of Federal Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) submissions, where students may be subject to "verification" requirements that require them to confirm the accuracy of the data. Using a matching on observables design we do not find that students flagged for verification are less likely to enroll in college, which contrasts prior research. Verification reduces grant aid received but average changes are small, raising questions about the benefits of this administrative process.

Recent discussions on enrollment in higher education have centered around the "Enrollment Cliff." The notion holds that due to changing demographics, colleges and universities across the U.S. will see a dramatic decline in enrollment starting in 2025. The enrollment cliff poses legitimate challenges to schools around the country. Schools who are savvy in their response to the cliff can better position themselves for student population decreases and increased competition. Prioritizing student success may help the schools most vulnerable to shifting demographics navigate the years ahead.

According to the American Community Survey (ACS), about one-quarter (24.8 percent) of the U.S. population over the age of 3 was enrolled in school in 2021. This report provides a comprehensive picture of the state of school enrollment using recently published data from the ACS. It outlines modern enrollment trends while also offering comparisons to past levels of enrollment. More specifically, this report covers the time of the COVID-19 pandemic that was characterized by school closures, expanded remote learning, and decisions to delay school enrollment from both schools and families. The authors pay specific attention to two levels of schooling that saw notable shifts from 2019 to 2021--preschool enrollment and college enrollment--and examine whether certain demographic groups or geographic areas were more impacted than others. The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way society operates in many ways, from shifts in the way people work to increased focus on public health. This report shows that the way people approach schooling may also have shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic. As more data become available, the authors can investigate whether the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a long-term shift in school enrollment trends or was simply an external shock whose effects will dissipate as the pandemic wanes.

This paper provides an overview of the United States higher education system. It gives readers introductory information about the size, scope and governance model of US higher education. This is a challenging task because higher education in the US is highly decentralized with no single 'system' coordinating all institutions of higher education (IHEs). Instead, 50 states, the federal government and dozens of accreditation agencies create a policy ecosystem that supports both public and private institutions of higher education. The US has no national university, no national agency overseeing all of higher education, no national policy on what professors can or cannot teach. There are no national price controls establishing how much tuition institutions can charge. And there is no national admissions policy sorting students into institutions. [This paper was coproduced by the Richmond American University London.]

The U.S. Department of Education's three-month delay in launching the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form and the subsequent lack of continuous access, ambiguities in the form, and data reporting errors have resulted in a significant decline in form completions for 2024. The analysis in this report--a first-of-its kind study merging granular demographic data on American communities with FAFSA completion data for the class of 2024--indicates that the dropoff in FAFSA completions has been significantly worse among historically marginalized communities. As a result, colleges are likely to see enrollment declines that are linked to race, educational attainment, and income. A significant dropoff in FAFSA completions will translate to a decline in college enrollment in the fall, and reduced enrollment in years ahead as this smaller class of students progresses through their programs. Furthermore, because much of the late progress on FAFSA completion occurred in mandatory FAFSA states, the analysis in this report may understate the size of the coming enrollment shortfall. The data suggest that the enrollment dropoff will be steepest in communities that are most in need: communities with a high share of residents living in poverty, non-college adults, and Black or Latino residents. Colleges and universities, state university systems, and Congress should make preparations now to measure and address the impact of declines in enrollment.

Virtual charter schools are increasingly popular, yet there is no research on the long-term outcomes of virtual charter students. We link statewide education records from Oregon with earnings information from IRS records housed at the U.S. Census Bureau to provide evidence on how virtual charter students fare as young adults. Virtual charter students have substantially worse high school graduation rates, college enrollment rates, bachelor's degree attainment, employment rates, and earnings than students in traditional public schools. Although there is growing demand for virtual charter schools, our results suggest that students who enroll in virtual charters may face negative long-term consequences.

Although dual enrollment programming and interest in how that programming shapes students' college outcomes have expanded considerably in the past 20 years, policymakers, educational administrators, and practitioners do not have adequate information about which dual enrollment structural options are most effective. Using statewide administrative data in Texas on students who entered 9th grade in 2015 or 2016 and took at least one dual enrollment course through a community college, this paper examines dual enrollment course enrollments and outcomes among recent high school entrants. We describe dual enrollment coursetaking and dual enrollment course characteristics (including instructor affiliation, course location, and instructional modality) for traditional Texas public high school students (as opposed to those attending an Early College High School or charter school), illustrating how students participate in dual enrollment (e.g., the types of courses taken and when in their high school career students take these courses) and highlighting typical course characteristics. We then examine how dual enrollment course and instructor characteristics predict student course completion, course grades, and subsequent college enrollment. Our descriptive analyses illuminate striking differences between the demographic and academic backgrounds of students who take academic dual enrollment courses versus career and technical education dual enrollment courses, as well as variation in course characteristics across these two dual enrollment course types. Our regression analyses illustrate how several malleable dual enrollment course characteristics are associated with students' course outcomes and subsequent college enrollment. The relationships we identify offer insights for the design of dual enrollment courses and programs.

This appendix is a supplement to the report "Possible Ways of Increasing College Access Among Adults from Underserved Backgrounds: A Study of College Transition Text-Based Messaging." It provides additional information about the study of Text Ed--the messaging strategy evaluated for its ability to increase college enrollment and Free Application for Federal Student Aid completion rates among clients of Education Opportunity Centers. This includes details about the Text Ed messages, how the study was designed and conducted, detailed impact and implementation analyses, and exploratory analyses to further elucidate the findings and suggest avenues for future study. The content of the appendix is referenced as applicable within the main report. This document presents the following four appendixes that accompany the study: (1) Additional Details on Text Ed; (2) Additional Information About How the Study was Designed and Implemented; (3) Supplemental Tables for the Impact Analysis; and (4) Detailed Implementation Analysis. [For the full Evaluation Report, see ED628025. For the Study Highlights, see ED628026.]

Applying to college and securing financial aid are complex processes that can be barriers to college enrollment, particularly for individuals not entering directly after high school. These adults can seek out support from various organizations, including the U.S. Department of Education-funded Educational Opportunity Centers (EOCs), which operate from offices located within select colleges and community-based organizations. The EOCs primarily target their help to adults with low incomes and those who are potential first-generation college-goers. This study examines whether adding low-cost, text-based messaging can help EOCs more effectively work with their clients to increase clients' completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and college enrollment. About 3,500 EOC college-intending clients from 18 EOCs across the country were randomly divided into two groups: one received regular EOC services, and the other received EOC services plus a set of personalized, pre-programmed text messages focused on how to secure financial aid, complete key college enrollment steps, and navigate other potential barriers to college entry. The study compared the two groups to determine the effectiveness of the college transition text messaging. Key findings include: (1) Adding personalized text messaging to existing EOC services did not increase clients' rates of college enrollment or FAFSA completion; and (2) Although many clients completed important college-going tasks such as applying to college and submitting the FAFSA, 4 out of every 10 clients did not enroll in college. [For the Study Highlights, see ED628026. For the appendix, see ED628028.]

Thanks to rapid increases in the state's Hispanic and Asian populations, the number of Texas students classified as English Learners has surged in the past decade, from approximately 830,000 in 2010 to more than 1.1 million today. In the charter sector, change has been even more rapid. In 2010, 16 percent of charter students in Texas were classified as English Learners. Yet by 2021, that figure had nearly doubled to just under 30 percent, even as the share of all Texas students who enrolled in charters "also" doubled (and then some). Consequently, the total number of English Learners in Texas charters has quintupled in the past decade, from less than 25,000 in 2010 to nearly 120,000 in 2021. The rapid growth in Texas's English-Learner population puts a premium on analyzing the educational experiences of this student group, and the disproportionate share of this growth that has occurred in the state's charter sector makes it particularly important to understand how English Learners in that sector are faring. Accordingly, this report addresses three research questions: (1) How do the English Learners who enroll in Texas charter schools compare to their peers in traditional public schools?; (2) How do the academic and economic outcomes of English Learners in Texas charter schools compare to those of their peers in traditional public schools?; and (3) How have the academic outcomes of English Learners in Texas charter schools evolved as the number of English Learners in charters has increased? To address these questions, this report uses student-level data spanning much of the first two decades of this century and a wide range of analytic techniques. In so doing, it brings important new evidence to bear on the educational experiences of one of the fastest-growing student populations in one of the fastest-growing sectors in one of the fastest-growing states in the country. [This report was written with David Griffith. The foreword was written by Michael J. Petrilli and David Griffith.]

This report follows the high school graduating class of 2021 into their first year of college. While the data reveals areas that require attention, it is important to recognize successes: (1) A slight increase in students enrolled in Concurrent Enrollment (programs that follow statute guidelines and offer college courses tuition-free to high school students); (2) All students enrolled in Concurrent Enrollment in the 2020/2021 academic year potentially saved $50 million in tuition costs; (3) 3.5% earned postsecondary credentials while in high school -- a slight decrease from the year previous but much higher than in 2009 (0.34%); (4) Students assessed as needing developmental education courses have decreased significantly -- there is also a decrease in the number of students enrolled in standalone developmental education courses; and (5) Colorado higher education provides good support once students enroll. Persistence rates increased slightly (just under 80%) -- higher than the national average of 75.6%. These and other successes can be used as momentum to address the areas that need attention. Just under 50% of high school graduates attended an institution of higher education in the fall after graduation. The concern adds to the weight of the upcoming enrollment cliff - projections of a nationwide drop in enrollment of the college-age population beginning in 2025. Further, the cliff has resulted in colleges outside of Colorado increasingly recruiting the state's graduates -- 29% of high school graduates enrolled in a college or university in another state -- a 4% increase and the highest rate ever.

"A Dream Derailed? Investigating the Causal Effects of College Closure on Student Outcomes" is the second of three planned novel reports from a collaborative research team of State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) and the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) Research Center, seeking to quantify the impacts of college closures on students' subsequent postsecondary enrollment and completion outcomes and to identify the policy levers states may have to support students who experience a closure. This second report builds on the foundation established by the first report to provide estimates of the impacts of closures on student outcomes. It includes a matched sample of students who did not experience a closure as a comparison group for determining the direction and strength of the associations between closure and student outcomes such as enrollment, persistence, and completion. A forthcoming third report will incorporate the state authorization policy context to ascertain if policy interventions can ameliorate the negative impacts of closures on students. [For the first report, "A Dream Derailed? Investigating the Impacts of College Closures on Student Outcomes," see ED627227.]

This paper examines how the process of making higher education choices in the United States--whether to enter higher education, attend a particular college, or follow a particular path through college--produces and legitimates social inequality. The paper's central thesis is that a societal regime of many choices--while serving individual freedom and producing social well-being--"produces" societal inequality in a way that obscures that process of social reproduction for virtually all who participate in that choice regime. Students often make choices that do not serve their interests as well as they might wish, particularly if students are faced with many choices and do not have adequate information. The incidence of those suboptimal choices is not random but is socially stratified. It is higher for less advantaged people, and unequal provision of good information plays a crucial role in producing those socially stratified suboptimal choices. Secondly, the provision of many choices "legitimates" social inequality. Seemingly offered many choices in life, both the fortunate and unfortunate in society come to feel that much of the inequality they experience is due to their own actions and therefore is legitimate. The paper concludes by offering various prescriptions for reducing the socially stratifying impacts and ideological consequences of a high-choice regime. It lays out how we could more equally distribute high-quality information, nudge students toward better choice making, reduce the costs to students of suboptimal choices, and mitigate blaming self and others by demystifying the nature of choice. In making these arguments, this paper draws on the research literature in sociology of education, behavioral economics, cognitive psychology, and social psychology of inequality.

Nearly all states in the United States (45) currently have a postsecondary attainment goal to improve the average education levels of their residents and develop a highly-educated workforce. During a time of accelerated COVID-19 related postsecondary enrollment declines, the question as to how states will meet these goals could be particularly pertinent. While the National Student Clearinghouse's latest enrollment report provides encouragement that these unusually large declines are stabilizing, it is still uncertain when and how higher education will be able to rebound. Re-engaging with the Some College, No Credential (SCNC) population--the former students who stopped out without earning a credential--has been a priority for the many states with these established attainment goals. To succeed in bringing them back into higher education, state and institutional leaders need accurate and timely information about the current SCNC population, their progress, and outcomes upon re-enrollment, which is the focus of this annual progress reporting of SCNC students. This year's report suggests that there is an increasingly missed opportunity for states and institutions to re-engage with SCNC students even as the SCNC population is growing. Between July 2020 and July 2021, the U.S. has added 1.4 million more SCNC students; the SCNC population is now 40.4 million, up 3.6 percent from 39.0 million a year earlier. However, during the latest academic year 2021/22, fewer SCNC students re-enrolled, completed a credential, or persevered to a second year of re-enrollment than they did the previous year. [For the third report in this series, see ED599535.]