The Pell Institiute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education
 
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The research agenda of the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education focuses on three areas: access, success, and innovation. Our current/recent projects include:

Graduates of Denver Public Schools: College Access and Success
Dr. Pamela Buckey, Research and Evaluation Officer for The Piton Foundation, in collaboration with Dr. Lana Muraskin, Pell Institute Senior Scholar, with support from Denver Public School (DPS), the Denver Scholarship Foundation, The Piton Foundation, and the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, completed this timely and useful report which examined how 18,000 DPS graduates, from 2002 to 2007, perform in college. The report describes who enrolls in college and who persists to obtain a certificate or degree. In addition, the study examines college entrance rates for DPS graduates who earn credit in accelerated courses or programs during high school. Finally, a discussion of recommendations for future research and ways to better increase college access and success for students is offered.

Alternative College Admissions Strategies
The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, in partnership with the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), has received a grant from Lumina Foundation for Education to study the use of alternative and innovative approaches to college admissions and academic support. This project will examine the effectiveness of innovative strategies and programs that institutions are using to enhance educational opportunity and success for historically underserved student populations – specifically racial/ethnic minorities, low-income, and first-generation college students. Particular emphasis will also be placed on strategies employed to assist students in the transfer process from two-year to four-year institutions
Read the full announcement

Bridging the Gap to Success: Promising Practices for Promoting Transfer Among Low-Income and First-Generation Students
With funding from TG, this research project builds on the findings from Straight from the Source, which was funded by TG in 2006-2007. The project will examine the transfer pipeline and study institutional programs and practices that support transfer among low-income and first-generation students in order to identify promising practices that other institutions can adopt to increase success among this population.

Black College Dollars: Scholarships for African-American Students, 2007-2008 Directory
With The Sallie Mae Fund and BET Networks, the Pell Institute has compiled a scholarship guide for African-American students to help pay for college The guide contains information about more than 300 scholarships that are designed to reduce the cost of a college education for African-American students, and for all students of color. The guide will also be available online at at (www.blackcollegedollars.org), allowing students to search for scholarships by GPA requirement, academic and career interest, and application deadline. View the Scholarship Guide here

Opportunity Matters: A Journal of Research Informing Educational Opportunity Practice and Programs
Opportunity Matters is a research journal from the Pell Institute that provides a scholarly forum to discuss, disseminate, and stimulate research related to educational opportunity programs and the populations they serve, primarily low-income, first-generation, and minority college students as well as students with disabilities. The journal aims to make research more accessible and useful to policymakers and practitioners in the field in order to advance the goal of improving access to and success in higher education for underrepresented and underserved student populations.

Opportunity Matters publishes research-based articles, quantitative or qualitative in nature, that examine issues relevant to TRIO and other educational opportunity programs, such as:
  • the demographic profile of students served by educational opportunity programs with attention to the needs of special populations or subgroups (i.e. immigrant students, out-of-school youth, males of color, rural students).
  • the factors (i.e. academic, social, economic) that affect college access and success for low-income, minority, and first-generation college students as well as students with disabilities.
  • the programs and practices that improve college attendance and completion rates for underrepresented populations (i.e. curricula, pedagogies including the use of technology, counseling practices).
  • the methods used to evaluate the effectiveness of educational opportunity programs and/or the outcomes of program evaluation studies.
  • the larger policy contexts in which educational opportunity programs operate and the impact of policy and legislation on the delivery of services to target populations.
The inaugural issue of the journal was published in June 2008 and features several articles that have a special focus on college student retention for low-income and first-generation students. For more information, please visit the Opportunity Matters webpage, or contact Dr. Chandra Taylor Smith, the Director of the Pell Institute at Chandra.TaylorSmith@pellinstitute.org or by phone at (202) 638-2887, ext. #203.

Effective Tools for Evaluating the Outcomes and Impact of Outreach Programs and Practice
With joint funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation for Education, this project is designed to strengthen the capacity of pre-college outreach programs to collect and apply evaluation data to improving program outcomes. The project has two purposes: to develop a freely accessible, research-based Evaluation Toolkit that will enable outreach programs to more readily and systematically use data and outcome measures to improve service delivery; and to promote research that will identify effective program models across outreach programs and document the collective impact of programs by using the evaluation data generated through the common assessment framework in the Toolkit.

Improving Retention for Low-Income Students in College
With funding from USA Funds, the Council for Opportunity in Education and the Pell Institute are engaged in a two-year project to increase the awareness of colleges and universities regarding the success and failure of their low-income students. By providing colleges and universities with tools to better identify and understand their low-income students, institutions will be able to serve their students more effectively and increase the rates at which they are retained. The initial project will focus on colleges and universities in Maryland and will take place in three stages: 1)The development of audit tools that will assist four-year colleges in examining patterns of retention and graduation of students by family income; 2) The design and implement professional development training that will focus on instructing institutional teams from four-year institutions in Maryland in how to utilize the audit tools and interpret data gathered; and 3)The utilization of the audit tools by teams of senior administrators and faculty from participating colleges to identify their low-income populations, assess problems in their retention, increase faculty awareness of roadblocks and expand and/or develop resources for low-income students.

First-Generation Students in Texas
With funding from Texas Guaranteed, the Pell Institute is examining what makes a difference for first-generation students in terms of whether or not they enroll in college. Through focus groups with first-generation students in Texas, this project will determine chronicle what works for students, what is missing, and what messages on critical information about going to college gets through to students. Read the report here

Expanding Access and Opportunity: The Washington State Achievers Scholarship Program
On behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Pell Institute is preparing a research synthesis on the Washington State Achievers Scholarship program. This report presents findings of research conducted on the Achievers Scholarship program since it began in 2001. The Washington State Achievers Scholarship program combines financial support with mentoring and other assistance to assure low-income students from targeted high schools in the state of Washington are prepared for and participate in college. Read the report here

Retention of Low-Income Students
Among colleges that serve low-income students, there is a wide variation in graduation rates, with a number of these institutions having graduation rates exceeding the average for all colleges. With funding from Lumina Foundation for Education, the Pell Institute has engaged in research to identify differences in institutional characteristics or practices that might help to explain differences in student outcomes. The first of two projects was completed in 2003 and focused on institutions that serve high percentages of Pell Grant recipients. The report detailing the research and the findings entitled "Raising the Graduation Rates of Low-Income Students" can be found by clicking here

The report from the second project, examining institutions that serve large numbers of Pell Grant recipients, was released in May 2007 and can be found here

Indicators of Opportunity in Higher Education
The purpose of this project is to measure the opportunities for low-income students to access and succeed in higher education, and to track progress and improvement over time. An annual report, Indicators of Opportunity in Higher Education is a chance to remind people of not only the progress that has been made, but also how far we, as a nation, must go in order to open wide the doors of postsecondary education for all students. The first report was released in September 2004. Please click here to check the publications site.

 
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