Aligning the Means and Ends: How to Improve Federal Student Aid and Increase College Access - Gaps continue to widen in college enrollment and completion between children from high- and low-income families. This report offers solutions to problems of insufficient grant aid; families too uninformed to make wise decisions about cost, financial aid and likelihood of graduation; the federal application's complexity; holding accountable colleges and states for ensuring their students receive a quality education and can graduate without burdensome debt. (Institute for College Access & Success, February 2023) ...

Federal Student Aid: Access and Completion - As states reduce financial support for higher education, tuition rises and more students qualify for federal aid. It's possible student loan debt already has exceeded $1 trillion. Congress will be considering ways to reform the system and the author has a few suggestions: reward completion, advise and track Title IV students, reward institutions for exceeding their Title IV completion rate goals, and apply Student Academic Progress (SAP) criteria to those receiving veteran and tax benefits. (R. Michael Tanner, Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, January 2013)...

Making Sense of the System: Financial Aid Reform for the 21st Century Student - As higher education becomes more necessary and more expensive, the authors argue our financial aid system needs to be reassessed. They offer 13 policy recommendations in four categories: Promote early and coordinated preparation for college, restructure or repurpose grant and loan delivery systems (maintain the Pell Grant system for need-based aid and make it an entitlement), provide incentives for completion, reduce debt burdens and include better debt repayment options. (Mark Huelsman and Alisa F. Cunningham, Institute for Higher Education Policy, January 2013)...

Burden Greatest on Young, Poor: A Record One-in-Five Households Now Owe Student Loan Debt - This report examines outstanding student loan debt in the context of the debtor household’s other debts, assets and other measures of economic ability to handle the student debt. The report finds that since 2007 the incidence of student debt has increased in nearly every demographic and economic category, as has the size of that debt. (Pew Research Center, September 2012) ...

Higher Education: Improved Tax Information Could Help Families Pay for College - In this report, GAO was asked to (1) describe the size and distribution of Title IV student aid and tax expenditures available to assist students and families with higher education expenses; (2) assess the extent to which tax filers select higher education provisions that maximize their tax benefit; (3) summarize what is known about the effect of student aid and tax expenditures on student outcomes; and (4) describe factors that contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of federal student assistance programs. (GAO, May 2012)...

Performance-Based Scholarships: Emerging Findings from a National Demonstration - This brief summarizes preliminary results from performance-based scholarship programs in Ohio, New York, and New Mexico, in addition to the original results in Louisiana. The results show modest but positive effects on important markers of academic progress, including increases in credits earned, greater impacts in the second term, and an increase in students’ abilities to meet end-of-term benchmarks during program terms. The short-term results of the demonstration suggest that performance-based scholarships can move the dial on some important markers of academic success. (MDRC, May 2012) ...

College and Careers Tables Library - This site provides data on a range of issues related to college and career readiness, including but not limited to, student financial aid and employment, degrees and certificates awarded, and graduation and completion rates. (National Center for Education Statistics, March 2012)...

Federal Student Loan Interest Rates: History, Subsidies, and Cost - This issue brief details the history of federal student loan interest rates, including the decisions that led to today’s fixed rates and the pending rate increase. It also examines the popular argument that current rates are unfavorable for borrowers and disputes the claim that student loans earn revenue for the government. (New America Foundation, February 2012)...

Federal Student Loan Interest Rates: History, Subsidies, and Cost - This issue brief details the history of federal student loan interest rates, including the decisions that led to today’s fixed rates and the pending rate increase. It also examines the popular argument that current rates are unfavorable for borrowers and disputes the claim that student loans earn revenue for the government. (New American Foundation, Feb 2012) ...

41st Annual Survey Report on State-Sponsored Student Financial Aid - This report provides data on state-funded expenditures for student financial aid and illustrates the importance of efforts made by the states to assist postsecondary students. Please note row and column data in tables may not add to row and column table totals throughout the report due to rounding. (National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs, 2011)...

Priced Out: How the Wrong Financial-Aid Policies Hurt Low-Income Students - This study finds that the average low-income family must contribute an amount roughly equivalent to 72 percent of its annual household income each year just to send one child to a four-year college. That’s after all sources of grant aid are taken into account. Meanwhile, middle-class and high-income families contribute amounts equivalent to just 27 percent and 14 percent of their yearly earnings, respectively. (Education Trust, May 2011)...

Tapping HSI-STEM Funds to Improve Latina and Latino Access to STEM Professions - With the growing Latino population, these students are increasingly a linchpin in state and federal plans to get more students trained in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. The authors of this report argue that the achievement gaps at the baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral levels exist in large part because of finances. (Lindsey Malcom, Alicia Dowd and Terrence Yu, Center for Urban Education, November 2010)...

Recession, Retrenchment and Recovery: State Higher Education Funding & Student Financial Aid Volume II - This report examines 25 years of data regarding financial access to higher education. In a state-by-state comparison, the report details higher education financial access during recessions and policy strategies for the states that maintained access. Also included are suggestions for improvement and success extrapolated from the data and policymaker interviews. (Allison S. Ambrose, Edward R. Hines, Ross A. Hodel, Kathleen F. Kelly, Christopher E. Mushrush, Sheila J. Pruden, W. Paul Vogt, Center for the Study of Education Policy, Illinois State University National Association of State Student Grant Aid Programs, State Higher Education Executive Officers, October 2006)...

Recession, Retrenchment, and Recovery: State Higher Education Funding & Student Financial Aid - As the nation emerges from the first recession of the 21st century, states need to assess the consequences, take stock of their challenges and resources and do what they can to prepare for the inevitable next fiscal crisis. The goal of this report is to identify and disseminate successful state-level strategies and policy tools to protect students’ access to postsecondary education through recession, retrenchment and recovery, and to identify strategies to help bridge these cycles. Of particular concern was the effect of recessions on access to college for students, particularly low-income students. (College of Education, Illinois State University, October 2006) ...