The Pell Institiute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education
The strength of the United States is not the gold at Fort Knox or the weapons of mass destruction that we have, but the sum total of the education and the character of our people. Claiborne Pell
   
   
 

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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:

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 (.pdf)

Opportunity Matters: A Journal of Research Informing Educational Opportunity Practice and Programs
Opportunity Matters is a new annual research journal from the Pell Institute that will provide 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 will publish 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 will be published in February 2007 and will feature several articles that have a special focus on college student retention for low-income and first-generation students. For more information, please contact Dr. Jennifer Engle, the editor of the journal by email at jennifer.engle at 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 (.pdf)

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 (.pdf)

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 (.pdf) 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 (.pdf)

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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Sponsored by Council for Opportunity in Education