Federal Pell Grant Research Articles

The Impact of Academic Library Expenditure on College Graduation Rates

Some higher education institutions have announced plans for cutting funding for academic libraries in response to fiscal difficulties. However, academic libraries provide essential resources and experiences for college students, and a number of studies have investigated how institutional expenditure for academic libraries is associated with student graduation. Yet, these studies are limited in that they only examine cross-sectional correlations, do not control for other factors that can influence student success, or only examine a relatively small number of institutions. To address these limitations, we use longitudinal data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Systems (IPEDS) to analyze the relationship between institutional expenditure on academic libraries and student graduation rates. In particular, we examine how library expenditure is associated with not just overall graduation rates, but the graduation rates of low-income students (i.e., recipients of the federal Pell Grant). Preliminary results indicate that institutional expenditure for academic libraries is positively associated with both overall student graduation rates and the graduation rates of low-income students, net of multiple institutional characteristics linked to graduation rates. Our findings support the importance of investing in academic libraries for student success and evidence against the budget cut of academic libraries. Our study also sheds light on academic libraries’ relevance for the performance of low-income students in universities.

Overcoming Inequality of Access and Participation Through Institutional, International, and Governmental Collaboration: a Case Study

Abstract On October 27, 2021, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (eca) named St. Edward’s University as one of only 35 Fulbright hsi Leaders. On the same day, eca recognized St. Edward’s as a Top Producing Institution during the past 20 years in the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program, which funds low-income American students studying abroad. How did this happen at a small, Hispanic-Serving, majority-minority university, with a large percentage of low-income students (44% Federal Pell Grant recipients)? The answer lies in the decision by St. Edward’s to strategically create and foster a network of internal partnerships, and national and international partnerships with other universities and government-sponsored organizations, to significantly improve the quality of the educational experience for all students (especially low-income and students of color) and to multiply opportunities for them to contend and achieve in the most competitive national and international student competitions.

Inclusive Access: A Multi-institutional Study of Academic Outcomes from A Statewide Community College Automatic Billing eTextbook Pilot

ABSTRACT In response to the high cost of textbooks and other course materials, Inclusive Access automatic billing programs allow the cost of a discounted eTextbook and/or courseware to be automatically added to a student’s tuition bill at the time of course registration. Touted for their ability to lower costs and provide students with access to materials on or before the first day of class, these automatic billing programs have become increasingly prolific across the higher education landscape. At the same time, research into many aspects of the program’s impact and efficacy remains lacking. This study examined academic outcomes from an Inclusive Access pilot launched fall 2019 by Tennessee’s largest system of public higher education. Results from across 13 community colleges and 141 courses spanning 41 course areas indicated no significant differences in either overall or population-specific academic outcomes between the Inclusive Access pilot semester and the two prior falls in which the courses were taught. The findings demonstrate that benefits accrued from relative cost-savings and/or Day One Access were insufficient to produce significant improvements in academic outcomes, with no significant differences in outcomes evidenced for nonwhite, federal Pell grant award recipients, and/or non-traditional students over the age of 25. These results suggest that measures beyond cost-savings and Day One access, such as hidden costs, the need for perpetual access, and the repercussions to student debt from deferring college expenses, should also be considered when evaluating ways to provide students with affordable course materials that enable high-quality, equitable learning experiences.

Pell Grants and Student Success: Evidence from the Universe of Federal Aid Recipients

The Federal Pell Grant Program lowers the cost of higher education for low-income students. We estimate Pell’s average effect for the universe of federally aided students—the broadest swath of higher education studied to date. Exploiting discontinuities and kinks in the grant schedule, we find that the effect of Pell on completion rates and postcollege earnings is much smaller than the findings of recent prominent studies focused on specific states. We argue that interactions between Pell grants and state aid programs may explain this difference, underscoring the importance of understanding how the impact of financial aid depends on context.

Inequalities on the Digital Campus

Inequalities on the Digital Campus Alice Quach (bio) and Victor Tan Chen (bio) When the pandemic struck last year and classes went virtual, students scrambled to adjust. A twenty-two-year-old Filipina-American psychology major at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) from a working-class background told us about the difficulties she faced attending her classes and getting her homework done. Her apartment’s unstable internet connection often booted her out of class, and she was stymied by the fact that she didn’t even have a desk at home. Because desks were sold out at many stores at the start of the pandemic, she built a wobbly makeshift one out of shelves she bought at a hardware store. A year later, the challenges have continued because of the condition of the small apartment she shares with a roommate. Her bedroom ceiling leaks whenever it rains. Her bed was ruined after a storm, and her landlord has yet to fix the problem (the bucket she used to catch the ceiling drips was visible during our Zoom interview). Along with the “paper-thin” walls of her apartment, these various at-home distractions have made it hard to concentrate on academics, she said. While universities are reopening for business, the rapid spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 raises concerns about more lockdowns. Now is a good time, then, to consider the impact that the shift to virtual learning has had on the millions of college and graduate students forced to study—either partly or wholly—at home. Through research conducted at VCU in Richmond, we found that class and race shaped the realities of online learning in 2020 and 2021 in deep, sometimes unexpected ways that largely revolved around the family resources available to students. Affluent and white students drew upon financial and material sources of support from their parents, partners, and employers to help mitigate the hurdles to learning posed by the pandemic. Our interviews with less-advantaged students, by contrast, made clear just how much they typically rely on the physical infrastructure of the university: quiet places to study, fast and reliable internet connections, comfortable desks. In other words, the pandemic highlighted not only the wildly unequal resources available [End Page 57] to students learning at home, but also just how much university campuses matter in reining in those inequalities—creating, through their shared spaces, a more level playing field for students of all backgrounds. To understand how students were adjusting to socially distanced learning, Alice interviewed thirty undergraduate and graduate students at VCU. A state university, VCU enrolled 22,277 undergraduates and 5,554 graduate students in 2020–2021. About half of its undergraduates are people of color, and a third receive federal Pell Grant support—making it an ideal campus for observing how working-class students coped with the impact of the pandemic. When lockdowns began last year, VCU shut down its campus, but it stayed open the following school year through a mix of virtual and in-person classes, with about half of classes wholly or partially online in the fall of 2020. Even before the pandemic, there was heated debate over whether the growing popularity of online learning would heighten or lessen higher education’s age-old inequalities. Advocates argued that virtual instruction would make it easier for some students—particularly working learners—to take classes. Critics worried about the so-called digital divide: high-speed internet access is costly (and, in some rural areas, nonexistent), meaning that students from more privileged families are better able to participate online and take advantage of the latest learning technologies. Click for larger view View full resolution College students in March 2020 protesting a mandatory order to evacuate campus dorms (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) Alice’s in-depth interviews with students illustrated just how much economic insecurity—and the absence of a familial financial backstop—makes [End Page 58] it difficult to study virtually. One student Alice talked to was a twenty-nine-year-old Latina senior—a first-generation college student from a working-class background. Even before the pandemic, her need to pay her way through school meant she worked two part-time...

Online biology degree program broadens access for women, first-generation to college, and low-income students, but grade disparities remain.

Online education has grown rapidly in recent years with many universities now offering fully online degree programs even in STEM disciplines. These programs have the potential to broaden access to STEM degrees for people with social identities currently underrepresented in STEM. Here, we ask to what extent is that potential realized in terms of student enrollment and grades for a fully online degree program. Our analysis of data from more than 10,000 course-enrollments compares student demographics and course grades in a fully online biology degree program to demographics and grades in an equivalent in-person biology degree program at the same university. We find that women, first-generation to college students and students eligible for federal Pell grants constitute a larger proportion of students in the online program compared to the in-person mode. However, the online mode of instruction is associated with lower course grades relative to the in-person mode. Moreover, African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American, and Pacific Islander students as well as federal Pell grant eligible students earned lower grades than white students and non-Pell grant eligible students, respectively, but the grade disparities were similar among both in-person and online student groups. Finally, we find that grade disparities between men and women are larger online compared to in-person, but that for first-generation to college women, the online mode of instruction is associated with little to no grade gap compared to continuing generation women. Our findings indicate that although this online degree program broadens access for some student populations, inequities in the experience remain and need to be addressed in order for online education to achieve its inclusive mission.

The Multiplier Effect of Education Expenditure

This paper examines the short-run effects of federal education expenditures on local income. We exploit city-level variation in exposure to national changes in the $30-billion Federal Pell Grant Program, which is the largest program to help low-income students attend college in the U.S., to calculate fiscal multipliers of education expenditures. An increase in Pell grants by 1 percent of a city's income raises local income by 2.4 percent over the next two years. This multiplier effect is larger than estimates for military spending (1.5 on average). Multipliers are higher when grants are awarded to students at non-profit colleges, as for-profit colleges absorb most of the grant increases with raises in tuition. Multipliers are also higher during recessions than in expansions: Pell grants can be an effective tool for countercyclical policy that adds to already established benefits, such as, increasing the affordability of college and fostering long-run economic growth.

Aiding or Dissuading? The Effects of Reducing Lifetime Eligibility Limits for Need-Based Aid on Bachelor’s Degree Attainment and Time to Completion

Little is known about the effects of need-based financial aid disbursed late into college and how students respond when they approach lifetime limits for receiving aid. I exploit changes to federal Pell Grant eligibility rules that reduced the lifetime availability for grant aid from 9 to 6 full-time-equivalent years to examine these questions. Using data from the University System of Georgia and a matched difference-in-differences research design, I compare student outcomes before versus after the rule change for Pell recipients affected and unaffected by the new policy. Risk of aid exhaustion due to the policy change led students to increase their academic effort, as measured by term-over-term re-enrollment and term credits attempted and earned. I find weak evidence that the policy change accelerated time to completion and no evidence that it increased or decreased degree attainment overall. These findings indicate that aid disbursement policies and lifetime aid limits can impact the cost-effectiveness of aid expenditures and the efficiency of college degree production.

Experimental evidence for a first-year experience course plus mentoring on moderate-income university students’ engagement, achievement, and persistence

ABSTRACT Colleges and universities are paying increasing attention to students’ transition into post-secondary education, including the provision of support to freshmen through structured First-Year Experiences (FYEs). Although low- and-moderate-income students are participating in post-secondary education at increased rates, their performance remains behind that of affluent students. We evaluated the effects of a two-arm experimental-assignment treatment for low- and moderate-income U.S. students eligible for Federal Pell grants at a four-year high-research university (N = 178): 57 control condition, 61 in professional learning communities, 60 in community mentoring, with computerized random assignment conducted by an external evaluator. The intensive (3 credit) two-semester research-based FYE plus mentoring program showed no effect on students’ GPA or likelihood of good academic status, probation, or year two persistence. The treated students also showed no differences in fall-to-spring growth or spring level for non-cognitive measures, including academic engagement, amotivation, peer interaction, faculty interaction, and staff interaction. The null findings are consistent across unadjusted treatment-control comparisons, multivariate regression analyses for continuous outcomes, and logistic, probit, or linear analyses of dichotomous outcomes. Our findings have implications for generalizability about FYE effectiveness for low- and moderate-income students and for the design characteristics of FYE programing to reliably improve student outcomes.

Hitting Where it Hurts Most: Covid-19 and Low-Income Urban College Students

Using administrative data merged with a rich student survey collected during the summer of 2020, we document the immediate and short-term educational, financial, and personal burdens of New York city's low-income public university students during the COVID-19 pandemic, the closing of college campuses, and the city's shutdown. Low-income students are identified by whether they ever received the federal Pell Grant. We find that low-income college students were 8% more likely than general students at the same college to experience challenges while attending online classes during spring 2020 mostly due to higher childcare responsibilities, greater lack of internet, or greater probability of being sick or stressed. They were also 11% more likely to consider dropping a course because of concerns that their grade would jeopardize their financial assistance. Despite being 21% more likely to receive financial support from emergency relief grants and stimulus payments and unemployment benefits from the CARES Act, low-income college students have or are currently more at risk of experiencing financial distress including securing basic food needs (46% higher) and shelter (62% higher), facing job loss (15% higher), or losing their financial aid (12% higher). We identify potential mechanisms driving these results and correct for multiple hypothesis testing. Our findings underscore the need to target a variety of services and assistance towards low-income college students to secure their wellbeing and college continuity.

The “Double‐Whammy”: How Cuts in State Appropriations and Federal Pell Grants Harm Rural Community College Students and the Institutions That Serve Them

AbstractThis chapter reviews multiple variables across all public community colleges, and unveils marked disparities in public funding between and within the states at community colleges of different sizes and geographical settings.

Pell Grant Versus Income Data in Postsecondary Research

Given growing disparities in college enrollment by household income, policymakers and researchers often are interested in understanding whether policies expand access for low-income students. In this brief, we highlight the limitations of a commonly available measure of low-income status—whether students receive a federal Pell grant—and compare it to new data on enrollment by income quintile to evaluate a recent policy effort within elite colleges aimed at expanding access. We demonstrate that Pell is a rough measure of low-income status and that without more detailed data on colleges’ economic diversity, policy evaluations focusing on existing Pell data will suffer from measurement error and potentially miss enrollment effects for moderate- and high-income students.

The Effects of State Higher Education Policies and Institutions on Access by Economically Disadvantaged Students

Do state government policies and institutions promote access to postsecondary education by economically disadvantaged students? I analyze the number of state residents receiving federal Pell grants relative to the college-age population raised in low-income households. Using data for 1993–2008, I estimate separate models for total Pell recipients and for those enrolled in public, private nonprofit, and proprietary institutions. I find consistent evidence that state spending on both need- and merit-based financial aid enhances access by economically disadvantaged students, with the effects of need-based aid being larger and more robust than those of aid based at least in part on merit. I also find that students in states with consolidated governing boards have slightly greater access to public and nonprofit institutions than those with statewide coordinating boards. Enrollment by economically disadvantaged students in the public and proprietary sectors also responds to the opportunity costs of attending college, as measured by the state unemployment rate. I do not find evidence of direct effects from state policies limiting affirmative action, or political elites’ ideology.

Borrowing Trouble? Human Capital Investment with Opt-In Costs and Implications for the Effectiveness of Grant Aid

We estimate the effect of grant aid on City University of New York (CUNY) students' borrowing and attainment using a regression discontinuity/kink design based on the federal Pell Grant formula. Each dollar of grant aid reduces loans by $1.80 among borrowers. We only find crowd-out of this magnitude in colleges that, like CUNY, “offer” no loan aid and require students to opt into borrowing. We develop and empirically support a model that shows opt-in or other fixed borrowing costs can lead grants to crowd out large amounts of loan aid, lowering some students' attainment by reducing their liquid resources. (JEL D14, I22, I23, I26, J24)

Federal Pell Grant Eligibility and Receipt: Explaining Nonreceipt and Changes to EFC Using National and Institutional Data

In examining national data on Federal Pell Grant eligibility in the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), we were puzzled to discover that many students who appear to have eligible Expected Family Contributions (EFCs) do not receive the award. We use institutional data from a large public university to understand and enumerate changes from initial Free Application for Student Financial Aid (FAFSA) EFC to final Pell Grant EFC and explore why EFC changes occur. We determine that the nonreceipt of Pell Grant observed in NPSAS is likely due to NPSAS not reporting final Pell Grant EFCs. We examine how the verification process results in changes to EFC and describe how nearly half of students who experienced a change in EFC during the award year were not asked to verify. We also observe that selection for Quality Assurance verification and EFC changes varied based on students’ demographics characteristics. The paper concludes with discussion of improving the verification process.

Aiding or Dissuading? The Effects of Exhausting Eligibility for Need-Based Aid on Bachelor's Degree Attainment and Time to Completion

While studies find that need-based financial aid can increase college access, persistence, and completion, little is known about how tuition subsidies affect students after they have enrolled in college and how losing aid impacts postsecondary attainment. I shed light on these questions by exploiting recent changes to federal Pell Grant eligibility rules that reduced the lifetime availability for aid from 9 to 6 full-time-equivalent years. Using longitudinal data from the University System of Georgia, I compare student outcomes before versus after the rule change for Pell recipients who were affected and unaffected by the new lifetime limit. The results indicate that aid exhaustion required students to borrow more, which in turn accelerated their time to completion. The rule change increased the probability of term-over-term re-enrollment and bachelor’s degree completion within 8 years by 2-3 percentage points. Students who had at least one year to adjust to the new rule before exhausting aid eligibility were also much more likely to graduate before experiencing aid losses. Importantly, I find no evidence that the rule change decreased the overall probability of degree attainment. The findings therefore indicate that setting limits on the availability of need-based grants can accelerate time to completion for students who have demonstrated a sustained commitment to finishing college.

Debt Profiles of Model Students: The Projected Debt of Highly Productive Students and Its Economic Impact

A common misperception suggests that a high-achieving student can easily complete a degree with very limited debt, and that students with high levels of debt are thus underachievers. This assumption is supported by memories of previous decades when it was realistically possible for most students to work their way through college. This view, however, ignores the current financial realities faced by students with limited family support. The financial experience and circumstances of current, high-performing students is markedly different from similarly dedicated students in the past. Current students are now more likely to g raduate with high debt burdens that negatively impact their ability to contribute to the economy and society. This paper examines and describes the likely debt burdens now being incurred by highly productive students in common financial circumstances and projects the likely economic and societal impact of this debt. Using national data sources and theoretical perspectives based in the fields of cost accounting and economics, this study finds that students who enroll with a clear community college-to-university path are more likely to g raduate with lower debt levels. More rapid program completion likewise reduces debt levels. In addition, parental support at half of the cost of attendance reduces debt more than a full Federal Pell Grant. The results point to recommendations to policymakers at the federal, state, and institutional level to focus on providing for efficient transfer between schools, encouraging timing program completion, limiting developmental education requirements, and targeting sufficient funding to public institutions to produce optimal college prices.

A Trillion-Dollar Question: What Predicts Student Loan Delinquencies?

The recent significant increase in student loan delinquencies has generated interest in understanding the key factors predicting the non-performance of these loans. However, despite the large size of the student loan market, existing analyses have been limited by lack of data. This paper studies predictors of student loan delinquencies using a nationally representative panel data set that anonymously combines individual credit bureau records with Federal Pell Grant and federal student loan recipient information, records on college enrollment, graduation and major, and school characteristics. We show that borrower-level credit characteristics are important predictors of student loan delinquencies. In particular, credit scores of young borrowers are highly predictive of future student loan delinquencies, even when measured well before borrowers enter repayment. In marked contrast, our results point to only a limited power of student debt levels in predicting future student loan credit events. Our findings have potentially useful practical implications. For example, access to credit file information when borrowers exit school could help to more effectively target student loan borrowers who might benefit from enrolling in income-driven repayment or loan modification plans.

Initial Academic Momentum and Student Success: Comparing 4- and 2-Year Students

ABSTRACTToday, many full-time students spend one, two, or more additional years completing a 2-year associate or 4-year bachelor degree. In order to reduce this time frame, many institutions are utilizing a 15 to Finish campaign to encourage full-time students to enroll in 15 credits each semester. The first purpose of this study was to examine if there is a relationship between the number of credit hours enrolled in the first semester and the number of credits earned at the end of the first year. Concurrently, it examined how a student’s initial academic momentum (i.e., the number of credit hours earned in the first year) relates to student persistence and degree completion. The second purpose was to determine if there was a relationship between a student’s socioeconomic status and the number of credit hours enrolled in the first semester—and if it is feasible for low-income students, who primarily attend community colleges, to afford additional credit hours. The results showed that more students who earned 30 credit hours in the first academic year persisted to the second year and earned a degree than students who did not earn 30 credit hours. Also, the results showed that the majority of low-income community college students had enough Federal Pell Grant funds to pay for the additional tuition cost. Given these results, practical and policy implications are discussed.

Pell Grants as Performance-Based Scholarships? An Examination of Satisfactory Academic Progress Requirements in the Nation’s Largest Need-Based Aid Program

The Federal Pell Grant Program is the nation’s largest need-based grant program. While students’ initial eligibility for the Pell is based on financial need, renewal is contingent on meeting minimum academic standards similar to those in models of performance-based scholarships, including a grade point average (GPA) requirement and ratio of credits completed compared to those attempted. In this study, we describe federal satisfactory academic progress (SAP) requirements and illustrate the policy’s implementation in a statewide community college system. Using state administrative data, we demonstrate that a substantial portion of Pell recipients are at risk for Pell ineligibility due to their failure to meet SAP GPA or credit completion requirements. We then leverage the GPA component of the policy to explore the impacts of failure to meet standards on early college persistence and achievement, earning a credential, and transferring to a 4-year college using two methodological approaches: regression discontinuity (RD) and difference-in-differences (DD). Our results across the two approaches are mixed, with the RD providing null estimates and the DD indicating statistically significant impacts, including a negative effect on early college persistence. We conclude by discussing the implications for future research.