Browsing by Author "Goldrick-Rab, Sara"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Alleviating Poverty And Promoting College Attainment in Philadelphia
    Goldrick-Rab, Sara (The Hope Center, 2018-09-01)
    Philadelphia’s poverty is often attributed to its relatively low rate of college attainment. About half of the residents of Boston and Washington D.C. hold bachelor’s degrees, compared with only about one-quarter of Philadelphians. This puts us at a disadvantage, since college degrees in both academic and technical fields have widespread payoffs for communities. This report points out that efforts to fight poverty and improve well-being throughout Philadelphia must therefore include targeted interventions to grow its college-educated workforce.
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    Clearing the path to a brighter future, Addressing Barriers to Community College Access and Success
    Goldrick-Rab, Sara; Broton, Katharine M.; Gates, Christin (Association of Community Colleges Trustees, 2013-06-01)
    Over the past 100 years, community colleges have evolved to become the largest sector of higher education, representing over 8 million credit students nationwide. These public institutions are pillars of the communities, providing education and workforce training that fuel local economies. While community colleges have historically focused on providing access to higher education for students, the need to increase degree attainment has emerged as an equally important aspect of institutional achievement. As the Association of Community Colleges Trustees work towards the goal of increasing not only higher education access but success for the nation’s low-income and underserved populations, there remains an overarching concern regarding the ability of our institutions to provide students with the assistance and support needed to persist and complete their degrees.
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    Hungry And Homeless In College: Results From A National Study Of Basic Needs Insecurity In Higher Education
    Goldrick-Rab, Sara; Richardson, Jed; Hernandez, Anthony (Wisconsin Hope Lab, 2017-03-01)
    Food and housing insecurity among the nation’s community college students threatens their health and wellbeing, along with their academic achievements. Addressing these basic needs is critical to ensuring that more students not only start college, but also have the opportunity to complete degrees. This report presents findings from the largest survey ever conducted of basic needs insecurity among college students. In 2015, the Wisconsin HOPE Lab published the research report Hungry to Learn, a study based on a survey of approximately 4,000 students at ten community colleges in seven states. This study includes more than 33,000 students at 70 community colleges in 24 states. While this is not a nationally representative sample of students or colleges, it is far greater in size and diversity than prior samples, and provides information to shed new light on critical issues warranting further research.
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    The Real Price of College. College Completion Series: Part Two
    Goldrick-Rab, Sara; Kendall, Nancy (The Century Foundation, 2016-03-03)
    The high price of college is the subject of media headlines, policy debates, and dinner table conversations because of its implications for educational opportunities, student and family pocketbooks, and the economy. Financial challenges are a consistent predictor of noncompletion in higher education, and they are becoming more severe over time. In this report, the authors describe research conducted by the Wisconsin HOPE Lab that explains why the sticker price is often understated, while the availability of financial aid to create a lower net price is often overstated. The authors point out that many institutions underestimate the costs of living while in college, the ancillary costs of academic programs (books, supplies), and the expenses that students face related to health care and family emergencies. They describe how these costs arise and how students experience them, drawing on three studies that utilize administrative, survey, and qualitative data. The data suggest that these are but some of the costs unaccounted for in institutions’ statistics—in this exploratory work. They also discuss evidence from several studies indicating that financial aid tends to diminish during college.
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    Recommendations for the Effective and Equitable Implementation of Performance-Based Funding for Wisconsin Higher Education
    Hillman, Nicholas; Kelchen, Robert; Goldrick-Rab, Sara (Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education (WISCAPE), 2013-02-01)
    Historically, the state’s colleges and universities have received state appropriations based on funding formulas that reflect a combination of student enrollment at the beginning of the fall semester, mission-specific funding, and funding received in past budget cycles. While this approach helps provide stability and fiscal certainty for educational institutions, it also includes a potentially perverse incentive to focus on enrolling students rather than graduating them. Drawing on the latest empirical evidence, the report aims to provide a fair treatment of the potential benefits and costs of a PBF approach to funding higher education in Wisconsin. Then, it points out forth several recommendations aimed at ensuring the effective and equitable implementation of a PBF model, with the hope that a carefully designed and thoughtfully executed effort will lead to successful outcomes for all adults seeking a postsecondary education in the state.
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    Will Impending Reforms in Federal College Loan Programs Hurt Black Students and Families?
    Goldrick-Rab, Sara; Houle, Jason; Kelchen, Robert (Scholars Strategy Network, 2014-10-14)
    Borrowing from federal government loan programs to finance college is now commonplace for American undergraduates. Half of all college students had such loans in 2011-12. The typical senior has accumulated about $20,000 in debt – and total college loan indebtedness had grown to more than $1 trillion by 2011-12. Repayments for more than one in ten loans are currently at least ninety days overdue, and the delinquency rate has doubled over the last decade. With lower incomes and less wealth overall, black families have a greater need to borrow to send their sons and daughters to college – and black students are twice as likely as whites to have student debt. This report points out some recommendations for reforms to the Higher Education Act.