Publications

States play a pivotal role in financing higher education and shaping the pathways that connect learners to opportunity. In an era of federal uncertainty and shifting policy priorities, state leaders face increasing pressure to ensure that public investments in postsecondary education advance both broad attainment goals and more specific workforce needs. This paper is intentionally oriented toward helping states advance policy decisions and understand investment tradeoffs related to their financial aid and workforce alignment strategies.

State and local spending on higher education represents a significant public investment, and states have a responsibility to deploy these dollars in ways that maximize their social and economic returns. Policy discussions about how states can ensure their investments maximize these economic and social returns, however, have largely centered on states’ direct appropriations to public institutions and, more recently, on how those dollars can be tied to credentials of value. Far less attention has been paid to state financial aid…

First-generation college students—those whose parents did not earn bachelor’s degrees—demonstrate remarkable resilience in pursuing higher education, yet they face greater obstacles to degree completion than their continuing-generation peers. These challenges include fewer financial resources to pay for education and living expenses, lower levels of academic preparation, and limited guidance to help them navigate the complex environment of higher education.[1] As a result, first-generation students are less likely than their continuing-generation peers to persist from year to year, graduate within six…

By 2020, one in four undergraduates were enrolled in exclusively online programs, double the number enrolled in 2012. The policy landscape concerning online education changed markedly with the establishment of the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) in 2014. This regulatory change made it easier for institutions to offer online programs to students who reside out of state while completing the program. Using nationally representative survey data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, this report documents who is enrolling in…