Benefits Access for College Completion
Benefits Access for College Completion

Author: Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 35

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This report analyzes how students were served by Benefits Access for College Completion (BACC), a 2.5-year initiative designed to increase access to public benefits (such as SNAP or Medicaid) for eligible low-income students. These crucial supports reduce students' unmet financial needs and help them finish school. Launched in 2011, BACC funded seven community colleges to develop and implement sustainable policies and practices for embedding benefits access strategies into their operations. This report, "Lessons Learned from a Community College Initiative to Help Low-Income Students," outlines challenges and successes experienced by college sites as well as statewide systems. Among colleges participating in BACC, no two institutions employed the same benefit access strategy. However, all the institutions found that increasing access to public benefits was more effective when combined with other services in which students already engage, such as financial aid, counseling, and advising. In addition, CLASP found that colleges' success with integrating and sustaining benefits depended on: (1) Changes in student flow and business processes; (2) Actions to overcome cultural barriers within the institution; (3) The capacity to produce and use data; (4) The importance of collaboration and teamwork within the colleges; (5) New relationships with local and state benefits agencies; and (6) The need to overcome student stigma. Drawing on data from an evaluation of BACC, the report also demonstrates how increased access to benefits improves student progress toward degree completion. This is especially true for students who bundle multiple benefits while enrolled.

Benefits Access for College Completion
Benefits Access for College Completion

Author: Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Center for Postsecondary and Economic Success

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 1

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Benefits Access for College Completion (BACC) was designed to help colleges develop new policies that increase low-income students' access to public benefits, easing their financial burden to allow them to finish school and earn postsecondary credentials. Colleges participating in BACC have developed and institutionalized scalable, sustainable organizational and funding policies and practices that connect low-income students to an array of public benefits. This brief reports on some of those strategies.

A "How-To" Guide on Using Student Workers to Provide Comprehensive Student Financial Supports
A

Author: Julie Kashen

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 13

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Benefits Access for College Completion (BACC) initiative funds innovative approaches to increase the number of students earning postsecondary credentials by connecting students to public benefits in seven community and technical colleges across the country. BACC was launched in September 2011 to help colleges develop and institutionalize scalable and sustainable organizational and funding policies and practices that connect low-income students to an array of public benefits, such as food assistance and health insurance. Each college either developed or expanded upon its own model. Providing students with these comprehensive supports increases financial stability for students and their families. This brief offers practical guidance to colleges that wish to provide to students access to public benefits by incorporating student workers into their student support service activities. Student workers can effectively conduct a substantial portion of work related to accessing public benefits, including outreach, screening, application assistance, counseling, referrals, and data tracking. The guidance is based on the experiences of three of the community colleges in the BACC project--Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) in Cleveland, Ohio; LaGuardia Community College (LAGCC) in Long Island City, New York; and, Skyline College in San Bruno, California. The three community colleges utilized student workers in a variety of ways. The brief applies lessons from both their shared and unique experiences. Three appendices are included: (1) BACC Student Benefits Ambassador--SparkPoint at Skyline College Interview Questions; (2) Student Assistant--Skills Test--October 31, 2012; and (3) Background on the Benefits Access for College Completion Initiative. [The BACC initiative is is funded by the Ford Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, Lumina Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations and managed by CLASP and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC).].

Overcoming the Odds
Overcoming the Odds

Author: Jennie E. Brand

Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation

Published: 2023-08-31

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 0871540088

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Debates about college access often do not carefully consider what is required to speak knowledgeably about the benefits of college degrees. First, we want to know what an individual's life would look like without a college education. Second, we need to consider unequal access to higher education. Who attends and completes college, and who does not? Third, we need to determine which benefits of college we consider and how diverse benefits differ across diverse graduates. Too often, the rewards valued in public and academic debate begin and end with wages. The traditional focus on wages does not capture all the life-enhancing effects of higher education. In this book, Jennie Brand assesses how a range of long-term benefits of four-year college degree completion differs across the population. Considering socioeconomic, family-level, social assistance, and civic outcomes measures, she concludes that colleges are far from failing disadvantaged students. Their returns to degrees are substantial: a college degree not only enables underprivileged students to circumvent unemployment, low-wage work, job instability, poverty, and social assistance but also increases their likelihood of engaging in civic society"--

Paying the Price
Paying the Price

Author: Sara Goldrick-Rab

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016-09-01

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 022640448X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A “bracing and well-argued” study of America’s college debt crisis—“necessary reading for anyone concerned about the fate of American higher education” (Kirkus). College is far too expensive for many people today, and the confusing mix of federal, state, institutional, and private financial aid leaves countless students without the resources they need to pay for it. In Paying the Price, education scholar Sara Goldrick-Rab reveals the devastating effect of these shortfalls. Goldrick-Rab examines a study of 3,000 students who used the support of federal aid and Pell Grants to enroll in public colleges and universities in Wisconsin in 2008. Half the students in the study left college without a degree, while less than 20 percent finished within five years. The cause of their problems, time and again, was lack of money. Unable to afford tuition, books, and living expenses, they worked too many hours at outside jobs, dropped classes, took time off to save money, and even went without adequate food or housing. In many heartbreaking cases, they simply left school—not with a degree, but with crippling debt. Goldrick-Rab combines that data with devastating stories of six individual students, whose struggles make clear the human and financial costs of our convoluted financial aid policies. In the final section of the book, Goldrick-Rab offers a range of possible solutions, from technical improvements to the financial aid application process, to a bold, public sector–focused “first degree free” program. "Honestly one of the most exciting books I've read, because [Goldrick-Rab has] solutions. It's a manual that I'd recommend to anyone out there, if you're a parent, if you're a teacher, if you're a student."—Trevor Noah, The Daily Show

Beyond Free College
Beyond Free College

Author: Eileen L. Strempel

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-01-15

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 1475848668

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Beyond Free College outlines an audacious national agenda—consistent with, but far more comprehensive than, the current “free college” movement—that builds on the best of US higher education’s populist history such as the G.I. Bill and the community college transfer function. The authors align a wide constellation of higher education trends—online learning, prior learning assessment, competency-based learning, high school college-credit— with a rapidly shifting student transfer environment that privileges college credit as the pivotal educational catalyst to boost access and completion. The book’s agenda seeks greater productive investment in postsecondary education by privileging a single metric—lower-cost-per-degree-granted—as the animating driver of a transfer pathway that will fulfill the potential of its historical, progressive innovators. Beyond Free College’s goal is as simple as it is urgent: To galvanize higher education advocates in an effort to reorganize, reorient, and reignite the transfer function to serve the needs of a neotraditional student population that now constitutes the majority of college-goers in America; and in ways that advance completion, not just access to higher education.

Completing College
Completing College

Author: Vincent Tinto

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2012-04-15

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0226804526

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Even as the number of students attending college has more than doubled in the past forty years, it is still the case that nearly half of all college students in the United States will not complete their degree within six years. It is clear that much remains to be done toward improving student success. For more than twenty years, Vincent Tinto’s pathbreaking book Leaving College has been recognized as the definitive resource on student retention in higher education. Now, with Completing College, Tinto offers administrators a coherent framework with which to develop and implement programs to promote completion. Deftly distilling an enormous amount of research, Tinto identifies the essential conditions enabling students to succeed and continue on within institutions. Especially during the early years, he shows that students thrive in settings that pair high expectations for success with structured academic, social, and financial support, provide frequent feedback and assessments of their performance, and promote their active involvement with other students and faculty. And while these conditions may be worked on and met at different institutional levels, Tinto points to the classroom as the center of student education and life, and therefore the primary target for institutional action. Improving retention rates continues to be among the most widely studied fields in higher education, and Completing College carefully synthesizes the latest research and, most importantly, translates it into practical steps that administrators can take to enhance student success.

Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation
Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2011-07-29

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 0309159687

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In order for the United States to maintain the global leadership and competitiveness in science and technology that are critical to achieving national goals, we must invest in research, encourage innovation, and grow a strong and talented science and technology workforce. Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation explores the role of diversity in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce and its value in keeping America innovative and competitive. According to the book, the U.S. labor market is projected to grow faster in science and engineering than in any other sector in the coming years, making minority participation in STEM education at all levels a national priority. Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation analyzes the rate of change and the challenges the nation currently faces in developing a strong and diverse workforce. Although minorities are the fastest growing segment of the population, they are underrepresented in the fields of science and engineering. Historically, there has been a strong connection between increasing educational attainment in the United States and the growth in and global leadership of the economy. Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation suggests that the federal government, industry, and post-secondary institutions work collaboratively with K-12 schools and school systems to increase minority access to and demand for post-secondary STEM education and technical training. The book also identifies best practices and offers a comprehensive road map for increasing involvement of underrepresented minorities and improving the quality of their education. It offers recommendations that focus on academic and social support, institutional roles, teacher preparation, affordability and program development.

Making College Work
Making College Work

Author: Harry J. Holzer

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Published: 2017-08-15

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 0815730225

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Practical solutions for improving higher education opportunities for disadvantaged students Too many disadvantaged college students in America do not complete their coursework or receive any college credential, while others earn degrees or certificates with little labor market value. Large numbers of these students also struggle to pay for college, and some incur debts that they have difficulty repaying. The authors provide a new review of the causes of these problems and offer promising policy solutions. The circumstances affecting disadvantaged students stem both from issues on the individual side, such as weak academic preparation and financial pressures, and from institutional failures. Low-income students disproportionately attend schools that are underfunded and have weak performance incentives, contributing to unsatisfactory outcomes for many students. Some solutions, including better financial aid or academic supports, target individual students. Other solutions, such as stronger linkages between coursework and the labor market and more structured paths through the curriculum, are aimed at institutional reforms. All students, and particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, also need better and varied pathways both to college and directly to the job market, beginning in high school. We can improve college outcomes, but must also acknowledge that we must make hard choices and face difficult tradeoffs in the process. While no single policy is guaranteed to greatly improve college and career outcomes, implementing a number of evidence-based policies and programs together has the potential to improve these outcomes substantially.

Debt-Free Degree
Debt-Free Degree

Author: Anthony ONeal

Publisher: Ramsey Press

Published: 2019-10-07

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1942121121

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Every parent wants the best for their child. That’s why they send them to college! But most parents struggle to pay for school and end up turning to student loans. That’s why the majority of graduates walk away with $35,000 in student loan debt and no clue what that debt will really cost them.1 Student loan debt doesn’t open doors for young adults—it closes them. They postpone getting married and starting a family. That debt even takes away their freedom to pursue their dreams. But there is a different way. Going to college without student loans is possible! In Debt-Free Degree, Anthony ONeal teaches parents how to get their child through school without debt, even if they haven’t saved for it. He also shows parents: *How to prepare their child for college *Which classes to take in high school *How and when to take the ACT and SAT *The right way to do college visits *How to choose a major A college education is supposed to prepare a graduate for their future, not rob them of their paycheck and freedom for decades. Debt-Free Degree shows parents how to pay cash for college and set their child up to succeed for life.