Document Tag: federal policy

The Returns to College Persistence for Marginal Students: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from University Dismissal Policies (2018)

We estimate the returns to college using administrative data on both college enrollment and earnings. Exploiting that colleges dismiss low-performing students on the basis of exact GPA cutoffs, we use a regression discontinuity design to estimate the earnings impacts of college. Dismissal leads to a short-run increase in earnings and tuition savings, but the future fall in earnings is sufficiently large that 8 years after dismissal, persisting students have already recouped their up-front investment with an internal rate of return of 4.1%. We provide a variety of evidence that manipulation of the running variable does not drive our results.

State divestment and tuition at public institutions (2017)

This study examines the pass-through rate of changes in public funding to tuition and fees paid by students. Using an instrumental variable-fixed effects identification strategy, I estimate that a $1000 per student decrease in funding leads to the typical student paying $257 more each year in costs, with. However, both the pass-through rate and the proportion of tuition increases which can be explained by state divestment have increased over time. The pass-through rate increased from 10.3% prior to the year 2000 to 31.8% post-2000. I outline several avenues of future research which should be pursued in order to more fully understand which students shoulder the burden of reductions in public support.

The State of Food Security at CUNY in 2020 (2020)

In this report, we examine the prevalence and distribution of food insecurity at CUNY at the start of 2020. We also describe and assess the variety of programs, policies and services CUNY and its partners have developed to reduce food insecurity and suggest options for further reducing food insecurity in the coming years. Our goal is to provide the key constituencies at CUNY—its leaders, faculty and staff, students, and the City and State elected officials who fund CUNY—with the evidence they need to make informed decisions about promoting food security and academic success at CUNY. At the end of the report, we provide a brief overview of preliminary evidence on how the COVID-19 epidemic has affected food security at CUNY and the university’s options for reducing it.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: Community College Student Housing Insecurity (2015)

PD&R Expert Convenings: Summary Report.

On September 16, 2015, HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) convened a panel of education and housing experts
to shed light on the topic of housing insecurity among community college students. The convening featured brief presentations by experts
in the field followed by participant discussion. The goals of the convening were to reach a common understanding of the scope and
nature of students’ challenges, identify effective strategies, and discuss the potential role of the federal government in addressing student
housing insecurity.

Postsecondary Institution Ratings System- Testimony to Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance (2014)

iii
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In August 2013,
President
Obama announced an initiative
to mak
e colleges more affordable and
valuable fo
r students and families.
The plan invo
lved creating a ratings system to identify
institutions that provide the best value based upon measures such as
ac
cess
, affordability, and
outcomes. The ratings would allow comparison of institutions
wit
h similar missions to identify
those t
hat improved their performance and helped underrepresented or
disadvantaged students.
In December 2013,
th
e U.S. Department of
Education (ED)
publi
shed a Request for Information
(RFI) in the Federal Register
to gather
expertise on the proposed ratings system
–
referred to as
the
Postsecondary Inst
itution Ratings System (PIRS).
The Department was primarily interested
in the followi
ng areas associated with the proposed rating system:
•
Data Elements, Metrics, and Collection
•
Weighting or Scoring
•
Development of Comparison Groups
•
Presentation of Ratings Information
•
Existing Ratings Systems
•
Consumer Information vs. Accountability Systems
While respondents commended the Department’s desire to address problems in the
p
ostsecondary education system,
many questions were rais
ed about how PIRS would be
designed
–
issues that wer
e also raised in other venues:
ED’s Open Forums on Co
llege Value
and
Affordability, ED’s PIRS Symposium, and a forum held by the Association of Public and
Land
–
grant
Universities.
T
o help address these questions
and ensure that
PIRS fulfills its objectives,
the Advisory
Committee
held its Summer 2014 Heari
ng on September 12
th
at Trinity Washington University
in Washington DC. The hearing provided an opportunity for members of the public
to o
ffer
strategies and techniques for designing the system
in a manner t
hat achieves objectives
while
minimizing unintend
ed effects. Given its legislative charge, the Advisory Committee was
especially interested in how the ratings system might be designed to minimize unintended
negative effects
on low
–
income students.
Testimony at the hearing further illuminated ED’s areas
of interest. Panelists utilized their
expertise in various areas of the higher education community to provide ED with
recommendations on the best ways to proceed with PIRS given the information available. The
full transcript of this hearing, a modified ver
sion of which comprises the body of this report,
reveals a wealth of information for policymakers to consider in th
e creation of a ratings system.
Later this fall, ED plans to release a draft of the ratings system, also known as PIRS version 1.0,
for feed
back from the higher education community. The
Committee hopes that this transcript
will be useful in creating the draft system.