Jacob O. Stampen

Exploring the Effects of Ability to Pay on Persistence in College.

This study examines the effects of economic and noneconomic variables on college persistence, building both on economic theory and Tinto’s Student Integration Model. The authors tested their predictive research design’s hypotheses by means of logistic regression models with a national sample of 1,375 college students attending public four-year institutions. Findings indicate that financial variables moderate the effect of goal commitment on persistence. They explore implications both for theory and for student financial aid policy.

The targeting and packaging of student aid and its effect on attrition

Abstract This paper investigates three basic but largely unexamined issues affecting the student financial aid system in public four-year universities. These are the targeting of overall aid, the packaging of aid for different groups of aid recipients and the role of financial aid in motivating persistence. Institutional records and students surveys are used to investigate whether aid actually reaches the target population and whether various combinations of grants, loans, and work-study awards are allocated according to student ability to pay. Markov analysis is used to examine whether the targeting and packaging of aid is stable and consistent over time. Finally, logit analysis is used to examine relationships between financial aid and attrition rates over three successive years to assess whether aid promotes persistence among economically disadvantaged undergraduate students. The study finds that the student financial system, in keeping with established guidelines on targeting and packaging, distributes aid mainly to low income students and that aid effectively compensates for the disadvantage of low income by making low income students as likely to persist in college as higher income students who do not receive aid.

The Impact of Financial Aid on Ethnic Minorities

The “great society” financial aid programs were highly successful in raising the curve of minority participation. In the late ’70s, however, the curve flattened and has now begun to descend as college costs outpace student financial aid. The most promising strategy for overcoming the current decline in the rate of minority participation involves improving academic performance among low income and minority students.

Improving Higher Education Access and Persistence: New Directions From a “Systems” Perspective

Finding effective ways of increasing college access and persistence requires that proposed solutions be evaluated according to how they individually and collectively interact with the broad goals of higher education. Only then is it possible to estimate the overall impact of any particular solution. This article illustrates a “systems” approach, based on the quality function deployment model, for examining the direct and interaction effects of multiple solutions aimed at improving access and persistence. The results of applying this approach indicate the necessity of quality and access policies that support the entire educational system’s capacity to improve. Rather than simply more student aid, the “high leverage” solutions that emerge argue for improving the academic achievement of K–12 students and enhancing the quality of K–12 schools. The article concludes by outlining how researchers and stakeholder groups can jointly use an approach similar to the one we have illustrated to broaden consensus on how to improve access and persistence.

Implications of redefining independent student status

Abstract This paper explores the effects of redefining independent student status in determining eligibility for Pell grants to college and university students. The results show that recent proposals by the American Council on Education and the College Board would significantly increase both the numbers of independent students and the demand on student financial aid funds. Perhaps even more important, these proposals undercut the long-established principle of parental responsibility and would move toward making student financial aid grants an age-based entitlement program.

The impact of student earnings in offsetting “unmet need”☆

Abstract The amount of financial aid awarded to students who lack sufficient resources to attend college often falls short of amounts suggested by standard needs analysis systems, giving rise to what is called “unmet need”. This study explores the effects of earnings from work, a resource not fully accounted for by needs analysis systems, in offsetting unmet need. The results indicate that aid recipients who work while attending college are in many cases able to offset if not exceed unmet need, while those who do not, or cannot work, are at a relative financial disadvantage.