A new paper from MDRC, Piecing Together the College Affordability Puzzle: Student Characteristics and Patterns of (Un)Affordability is now available. This paper reviews the literature on financial aid and college achievement, examines data from MDRC’s Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration to identify relationships between students’ financial aid and their persistence and academic achievement, and concludes with recommendations for how these collective findings should affect financial aid policy.
Comments
Thanks for sharing this new resource. I find two of the policy recommendations to be validating:
1. Restoring Winter and Summer financial aid so that students' tuition for accelerated courses taken during these periods are covered.
2. Shifting the focus from a merit-based approach to a needs-based one and also testing out other models like a performance-based scholarship at the end of a semester rather than a merit-based one given at the beginning of the semester.
I am also looking forward to reading more about the successes and challenges of another promising new program that is being currently evaluated by MDRC called Aid Like a Paycheck (ALP). You can read more the program and its implementation phase here - LINK.
~ Priyanka Sharma