Browsing by Author "Rorison, Jamey"
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- Employing Postsecondary Data for Effective State Finance PolicymakingRorison, Jamey; Voight, Mamie; Engle, Jennifer (Lumina Foundation, 2016-03-01)Outcomes-based higher education funding structures have gained popularity in recent years as a means for achieving the goal of linking public investment in our colleges and universities to the social and economic benefits that states reap with an educated citizenry. The outcomes-based models represent an evolution of performance-based funding models with a more exclusive focus on student progression and completion and financial alignment to state attainment needs. Even states that choose not to implement outcomes-based funding stand to benefit from a stronger understanding of data systems and the ways that states can use data to inform decision making more broadly. Compiling information from 31 states, this report evaluates the measures and metrics commonly used in outcomes-based funding systems, identifies a core set of measures and metrics that can help state leaders assess the performance of their higher education system, evaluates data availability and catalogues useful data sources.
- Limited Means, Limited Options College Remains Unaffordable for Many AmericansPoutré, Alain; Rorison, Jamey; Voight, Mamie (Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2017-03-01)Higher education offers people from all walks of life the opportunity to achieve a more secure future for themselves and their families. The US was built in part on the idea that, with hard work and a good education, any American should be able to climb the ladder of social and economic mobility. The very notion of the American Dream is based on that concept of freedom— that we are not condemned to a particular social or economic class. Unfortunately, high college costs are stymieing progress for Americans of limited financial means, undermining the ideals of opportunity and fairness. To better understand the nature and scope of inequities in college affordability, IHEP’s research—comparing the Benchmark’s affordability thresholds for ten theoretical 21st-century students with over 2,000 colleges’ net prices—confirms how unaffordable college has become for many Americans. The data show wide variation in affordability between students with different income backgrounds. In fact, although the student from the highest income quintile in these analyses could afford to attend ninety percent of colleges in the sample, the low- and moderate-income students with fewer financial resources could only afford one-to-five percent of colleges. While it is clear that very few colleges meet a reasonable threshold of affordability for students of modest means, federal, state, and institutional policymakers can help level the playing field. This paper offers five recommendations to address issues of affordability that negatively affect college access and completion.