Projects

The Power of Certainty: Experimental Evidence on the Effective Design of Free Tuition Policies. 2023. Elizabeth Burland, Susan Dynarski, Katherine Michelmore, Stephanie Owen, and Shwetha Raghuraman. American Economic Review: Insights. 

American Economic Review: Insights (2023). Download the paper and appendix here. JPAL non-technical summary here.

Abstract: Proposed “free college” policies vary widely in design. The simplest set tuition to zero for everyone. More targeted approaches limit free tuition to those who demonstrate need through an application process. We experimentally test the effects of these two models on the schooling decisions of low-income students. An unconditional free tuition offer from a large public university substantially increases application and enrollment rates. A free tuition offer contingent on proof of need has a much smaller effect on application and none on enrollment. These results are consistent with students placing a high value on financial certainty when making schooling decisions.

Following in Their Footsteps or Avoiding Their Mistakes? The Role of Older Siblings in Shaping College Decision Making. Elizabeth Burland. Under Review (Draft available upon request)

Abstract: Social networks have long been established as a driver of educational decision-making; however, siblings are understudied as a direct mechanism, overshadowed by the focus on parents and institutions. Using longitudinal qualitative interviews with 36 high school seniors from families with low incomes, I explore the substantive role that older siblings play in shaping the postsecondary decision making of their younger siblings. I find that the support provided by siblings is distinct from other social resources. The intensity of the relationship, and the fact the information shared is recent and personalized to the students’ circumstances, each make this relationship distinct. By focusing on parents as the primary family mechanism contributing to educational stratification, we ignore an important source of heterogeneity in the lives of students and miss a key mechanism through which postsecondary resources are transmitted. 

Risk, Social Mobility and Postsecondary Choices: Leveraging a Financial Aid Experiment to Understand the College Decisions of Low-Income Students. Elizabeth Burland and Stefanie DeLuca.  

Abstract: While college enrollment rates have risen in the past few decades, difficult questions remain about how to serve our young adults as they try to make their way from high school through postsecondary education and into careers. Using qualitative interviews with 100 high school seniors from low-income families to understand how high-achieving low-income students experience, perceive, and assess risk in the college decision-making process. Our sample is drawn from a randomized controlled trial, which evaluates a free-tuition guarantee at a highly selective public flagship institution. This experimental variation allows us to explore what considerations remain when the cost of tuition is relaxed. We find that the fears students experience around the cost of college run much deeper than only the concrete expenses of tuition and housing. Student’s assessment of risk is internalized from their social and cultural contexts and shapes how they experience and make decisions during their transition to adulthood. The current postsecondary landscape places most of the uncertainty of the transition to adulthood (including financial, career, and safety-net) onto students and their families. We find that high-performing low-income students—even those with the tuition-guarantee—worry about whether the investment in a four-year degree is worth it. As a result of this risk assessment, students enact a number of risk minimization strategies to get a better sense of what they want to do, and how they will get experience doing it, most resulting in a delay of their college enrollment.

Bureaucracy and Burden: Understanding Take-up of a Need-Based Aid Program. Elizabeth Burland, Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija, Xavier Fields, Kelcie Gerson, Kathy Michelmore, Nathan Sotherland, Kevin Stange, Marissa Thompson, and Megan Tompkins-Stange. 

Abstract:  For many social welfare programs in the U.S. only a fraction of eligible beneficiaries actually receive resources. We examine this problem of policy take-up – defined as the fraction of eligible program recipients who actually receive aid – through the case of the Tuition Incentive Program (TIP) in the state of Michigan. TIP is a grant aid program that provides free community college to low-income students based on their participation in Medicaid over childhood. We leverage a large-scale mixed-method study – including comprehensive data on over 1 million Michigan public school students over eleven cohorts and 40 interviews with high school counselors –  to investigate take-up of this free-tuition program, and the mechanisms underlying program take-up, focusing both on administrative burden and the role of front-line administrators and navigators in shaping program access. We find that take-up is a complex matrix, illustrating that both program administrative hurdles and the front-line administrators who connect individuals to aid can be understood not as standalone hurdles or actors, but rather as a part of an intricate network shaping access to resources. 

Experimental Evidence on the Effects of College Quality on Educational Attainment (with Sue Dynarski, Katie Leu, CJ Libassi, Kathy Michelmore,  Stephanie Owen, and Mary Quiroga)

How Perceptions of Family Support Diverge: Comparative Evidence of Parent and Students Differences in the Experience of Decision-Making about Postsecondary Education (with Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija)

Social Networks and Geographic Boundaries: The Role of Place and Community in Shaping Policy Take-up

Postsecondary Decision Making Study (with Stefanie DeLuca)

Visit our Project Site (and here). 

There are well-documented and growing gaps in college attendance and completion rates by income.  Students from families with low-incomes are less likely to go to college and often attend less selective institutions than their qualifications would allow, diminishing their educational attainment and long-term earnings, while increasing debt.  As a policy response, colleges and universities have tried to increase economic diversity, and several interventions have been promising. We implemented a large-scale, longitudinal qualitative study within a randomized, controlled trial (the HAIL Scholarship Study) to understand student decision making, and to explain the mechanisms that make the HAIL Scholarship intervention so successful. We have thus far conducted over 100 in-depth interviews with students, and over 50 in-depth interviews with parents. We are currently conducting follow-up interviews with students a few years into their transition to postsecondary education or work. 

Current Funding: Russell Sage Foundation (PIs: Elizabeth Burland and Stefanie DeLuca)

Previous Funders: Smith Richardson Foundation (PIs: Stefanie DeLuca and Susan Dynarski), University of Michigan's Poverty Solutions, the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University

Early First-Dollar Categorical Need-Based Aid: A New Model for Making College Affordable? (with Kevin Stange, Katherine Michelmore, Megan Tompkins-Stange, Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija, and Marissa Thompson)

See the press release here and our project website here. 

In this mixed-methods evaluation, we are working to understand how the Tuition Incentive Program (TIP), a state-run first-dollar free community college program for Michigan students experiencing financial hardship, impacts postsecondary outcomes for high school students from families with low-incomes. This project uses qualitative interviews, descriptive analysis of administrative data, and quasi-experimental program evaluation to understand program take-up, key stake-holder experience, and whether the program is effective at increasing access to postsecondary education (and why or why not). We are pairing analysis of administrative data with qualitative interviews with program implementation staff, school counselors, students, and parents. Through these interviews, we plan to unpack program take-up heterogeneity identified in the quantitative data analysis: what is working, what is not working, and who is facing barriers to access this grant funding. Further, we hope to understand what can be done to improve the state of Michigan's policy efforts to make college accessible and affordable for all students. 

Current Funding: the Institute of Education Sciences (IES)

Categorizing and Understanding Facilities and Long-term (Capital) Investments (with Jinhai Yu)

The school districts throughout Connecticut were allocated significant ARP-ESSER funds to spend on longer-term (capital) investments, including HVAC upgrades, purchasing of new technology, etc. This project is tasked with understanding the ways in which districts spent the allocations on long-term facilities and other physical investments and the impacts on student outcomes. This study will use a mixed methods approach. The quantitative analysis includes coding capital investments under ARP-ESSER plans, descriptive data analysis of the ARPESSER capital investments, and analysis of the impact of the ARP-ESSER capital investments on student academic and behavioral outcomes. In addition to analysis of the quantitative data, the research team will conduct interviews with key district decision-makers in a subsample of districts to understand how these ARP-ESSER funds were allocated, what they perceive to be the impact of the funding on student outcomes, and the role of COVID-19 and other factors in shaping spending priorities. This project will result in a policy report for the Connecticut COVID-19 Education Research Collaborative as well as at least one academic publication.

Current Funding: the Center for Connecticut Education Research Collaboration