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Higher education
"Feel" as a Determinant of College Choice: Evidence from Campus Tour Weather
Tags: Higher educationThe feeling or impression that students get about enrolling in a particular college may be an important determinant of their college application decision. Combining institutional records on college campus tour participants over the last decade with hourly weather information, we leverage tour… more →
Dual-Enrollment Dosage Design: Conceptualization and Measurement of Student Profiles and School Structures
Dual-enrollment (“DE”), in which students enroll in college-level courses and receive college credit in high school, has become one of the most prominent strategies for promoting college access and readiness. DE models range from a la carte options or "random acts of dual-enrollment" to highly… more →
Exploring Factors Influencing Administrative Spending in Higher Education
Tags: Higher educationDespite increasing financial challenges facing much of higher education, relatively little is known about how institutions allocate resources to different activities, particularly in areas other than instruction.
Examining the Role of Policy Instruments in Supporting Public HBCUs’ College Affordability
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceThis study uses a multiple-case qualitative research design to examine the fiscal policy instruments that members of State Legislative Black Caucuses (SLBC) use to strengthen college affordability and broaden access for undergraduate low-income Black students attending public HBCUs. Guided by… more →
Sustaining AI-Enabled Student Support: A Four-Year Implementation and Impact Study
Topics: Student Well-BeingAI-enabled chatbots are increasingly used to support student success, yet evidence on their long-term sustainability and impacts remains limited. We examine the implementation of an AI-enabled text-messaging chatbot at a large, urban public university. Drawing on system observation, discussions… more →
Understanding How HBCUs Leverage Partnerships to Support Students’ Basic Needs
Topics: Student Well-BeingBasic needs insecurity has become a pressing equity issue in U.S. higher education, yet little research examines how historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) address students’ holistic needs. Guided by a practice-based, pragmatic analytic orientation and informed by a basic needs… more →
The Causal Effects of Federal Work-Study Offers on College Enrollment and Program Participation
Tags: Higher education, Student supportsFederal Work-Study (FWS) is a distinctive type of financial aid, originally intended to both reduce financial constraints and improve access to career-relevant job opportunities. Prior research on FWS has primarily focused on post-enrollment, post-program-participation outcomes, leaving… more →
Community College Bachelor's Degrees: How CCB Graduates' Earnings Compare to AAs and BAs
We provide the first national descriptive analysis of the economic value of Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) degrees by examining graduates’ early-career earnings, the costs of completing these programs, and the alignment between field of study and subsequent employment. Using… more →
Strategic Decision-Making in Higher Education: State Legislators and Affordability Policy for Public HBCUs
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceThis study uses a multiple-case qualitative research design to explores how power dynamics creates challenges and opportunities for SLBCs and their constituent members working to broaden college affordability and access for undergraduate low-income Black students attending public HBCUs. Guided… more →
College Enrollment Patterns After SFFA v. Harvard
Michael D. Bloem, Ashley Edwards, J. Parker Goyer, Jessica Howell, Xiaowen Hu, Michael Hurwitz, Samuel J. Imlay, Jennifer Ma, Matea Pender.We study how U.S. high school students’ patterns of college entry changed in the first year after the Supreme Court’s 2023 SFFA v. Harvard ruling. Drawing on a rich dataset linking more than 12 million domestic PSAT, SAT, and AP takers in the 2021-2024 high school graduation cohorts to their… more →
No Pay? No Way! Teacher Compensation Reforms and the Market for Graduate Degrees
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceGraduate degrees in education provide financial stability for many institutions, yet reformers have sought to decouple teacher pay from these credentials. Without a wage premium, educators may skip advanced study, reducing enrollment at nearby universities. Using a natural experiment in… more →
Selling Student Success: A Critical Analysis of Predictive Analytics Vendors in Higher Education
Tags: Culturally responsive schooling, Generative artificial intelligence (AI) in education, Higher educationAs predictive analytics become increasingly embedded in higher education, commercial vendors offering these tools play a growing role in shaping institutional decision making, particularly through identifying students deemed “at risk.” In this qualitative study, we analyzed 132 publicly… more →
Fast Track to Success? A Mixed Methods Evaluation of Condensed Course Formats at Tennessee Community Colleges
Kaylee T. Matheny, Madison Dell, Gus Gluek, Rachel Baker, Eric Bettinger, Alex Monday, Hidahis Mesa.As colleges face increasing pressure to improve student outcomes, one solution gaining traction is the adoption of condensed courses (i.e., shortened academic terms). We employ quasi-experimental methods to estimate the effect of enrolling in a condensed course on course- and student-level… more →
Labor Market Strength and Declining Community College Enrollment
Tags: Career and technical education, College readiness, Higher education, Human capital, Returns to education and skillsDeclining U.S. college enrollments have triggered questions about the health of the postsecondary sector. Using institution-level data, we make four points. First, such declines are driven not by the four-year sector but by two-year community colleges, which have apparently shrunk by over 30%… more →
How do place-based scholarships affect student borrowing and academic outcomes? Lessons from Atlanta
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: Higher educationPrevious research shows that Achieve Atlanta’s placed-based scholarship and associated services meaningfully improve college persistence and completion. In this follow up study that uses similar methods but additional and more detailed data, we examine whether scholarship recipients exhibit… more →
The Long-Term Effects of Rank in Elementary School
We estimate the long-term consequences of math and reading rank within an elementary school on short and long-term outcomes. We find that higher rank leads to better outcomes. Students ranked at the top in grade 7 perform up to 0.33 standard deviations higher on future school exams, are more… more →
Higher Education as Regional Development: Labor Market Impacts of Nigeria’s 2011 Federal University Expansion
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceThis paper examines the causal impact of higher education expansion on regional labor markets and human capital development. Exploiting the 2011 establishment of nine federal universities across previously underserved Nigerian states, we implement a difference-in-differences approach to analyze… more →
Behind the Scenes: Faculty-Staff Collaboration in a Student Success Effort
Interventions to improve postsecondary student success often involve supports that are external to the college classroom, although there is growing evidence that faculty involvement in interventions can improve student outcomes. This paper explores the challenges that arise when faculty and… more →
Can Peer Group Design Improve Engagement in Online STEM Courses? The Role of Motivation to Lead
Topics: Student LearningPeer interaction is important for student engagement and success in higher education and becomes even more critical in online STEM education, where limited interaction can undermine motivation and belonging—key factors for success in rigorous STEM coursework. Despite the widespread use of peer… more →
Resilience and Transformation: The Pandemic’s Effects on Texas Community Colleges
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted higher education, particularly community colleges serving significant proportions of traditionally disadvantaged students. This mixed methods study examines how Texas community colleges responded to the crisis and the extent to which they institutionalized… more →