Priced Out?

While the literature on postsecondary student success identifies important academic and social factors associated with student outcomes, one question that persists concerns the influence of financial aid. We use the National Student Clearinghouse’s StudentTracker service to develop a more complete model of student success that accommodates opportunities for students to choose to either graduate from the university of first-entry, graduate from a transfer university, or depart from college without a degree. The multinomial regression model reveals differential effects of financial aid. Results suggest that loan aid appears to encourage students to search out alternative institutions or drop out of college entirely, and merit aid appears to increase the likelihood of students persisting and graduating from the university of first-entry.     

大学生资助工作体系构建的原则

大学生资助工作是一项系统性工程,是高校学生工作的重点,是否遵循大学生资助工作体系构建的原则是有效开展新形势下大学生资助工作前提。本文力图从以下五个方面论述大学生资助体系的构建原则：资助与育人相结合的原则、资助与励志相结合的原则、资助与自助相结合的原则、经济资助与心理资助相结合的原则和显性资助与隐形资助相结合的原则。     

Metropolitan school desegregation and parent and student attitudes: A longitudinal case study

This study examines changes in the attitudes of parents and students coincident with desegregation in a new single unified school district, with reassignment of both suburban white students and inner-city minority students. Data are presented for the year immediately preceding desegregation implementation and for three years following implementation. The final sample presented includes only those parents and students for whom complete data were available for each of these four years. A repeated measures analysis of variance was used to examine overall changes in racial and educational attitudes across time and to determine the differential impact of several intervening variables, including race, sex, child's grade level at the time of desegregation, which of five former school districts the families were in prior to desegregation, and the parents' perceived social status. Overall changes were found for several parent and student attitudes, largely during the first year of desegregation implementation. Several of the intervening variables were also significantly related to attitude changes, notably race and child's initial grade level.     

Four-Year Degree and Employment Findings From a Randomized Controlled Trial of a One-Year Performance-Based Scholarship Program in Ohio

ABSTRACT

A college degree is often viewed as a key step toward better employment and higher earnings. Many community college students, however, never graduate and cannot reap the financial benefits associated with a college degree. Although existing research suggests that financial aid interventions can modestly improve students' short-term academic outcomes, there is little rigorous evidence on the critical question of whether such interventions improve graduation rates or employment outcomes. This study helps to fill that gap using a randomized controlled trial involving over 2,000 community college students in Ohio. It focuses on a student population composed predominantly of low-income mothers. The study includes four years of post-random assignment data to examine the long-term impact of a performance-based scholarship program—financial aid that is contingent on academic performance—on degree receipt, employment, and earnings. The findings provide evidence that the one-year program made a lasting impact on students' credit accumulation—still evident after four years—and decreased the time it took students to earn a degree, but the study does not provide evidence of impacts on employment outcomes.     

Parental Perceptions of the Use of Internal Sources of Information About Children's Development

This exploratory study examined parental perceptions of the information sources parents use when wanting or needing information about their three-year-old child's motor, social, and cognitive development. Specifically, this study compared parental perceptions of the use of internal information sources (i.e., parents' own intuitions about development, religious beliefs/teachings, and childhood experiences) to perceptions of the use of external information sources (i.e., books, magazines, counselors, etc.). Further, this study examined differences in parental perceptions of use of internal information sources by parent and child gender, and by developmental domain (i.e., information about a child's motor, social, and cognitive development). Sixty mothers and 60 fathers of a three-year-old child completed an information use structured interview. Findings revealed that almost half of the parents reported referring to their own intuitions, religious beliefs/teachings, and/or childhood experiences as sources of information about their child's development. Parents perceived the internal information sources as being used significantly more frequently and as significantly more useful for information about their child's social development than for information about their child's motor and cognitive development.     

高校贫困生认定存在的问题与对策研究

高校贫困生认定作为高校贫困生资助工作的首要环节,其准确性直接影响到高校贫困生资助的效益与效率,影响到高等教育机会的公平与均等。在反思高校贫困生认定现状、问题的基础上,对高校贫困生认定的完善与发展作进一步的探讨,为建立科学、合理、可持续的高校贫困生资助机制提供理论指导与实践支持。     

Kids,College, and Capital: Parental Financial Support and College Choice

Parents vary in both their willingness and ability to pay for their children’s college expenses, yet there is little research on how adolescents’ expectations of future financial support from parents affect their college enrollment decisions. Using data from the High School Longitudinal Study, I fill this gap in the literature by examining the predictors of parents’ plans to pay for college and estimating the effect of having a parent that plans to pay for college on an adolescent’s probability of college attendance. The results suggest that after parents’ ability to pay is taken into account, social class remains a strong predictor of whether parents plan to pay for their children’s college education. Additionally, parent’s plans to pay for college have a measurable impact on children’s college enrollment as long as the child is aware of or agrees with the parent’s plans. Therefore, it is likely that socioeconomic differences in parents’ pledges of financial support to adolescents contribute to postsecondary stratification. The results from this study suggest that policymakers and researchers who are concerned about educational inequality should pay greater attention to the role of parental financial support in structuring children’s ability to access college.     

对新时期做好高校资助宣传工作的探讨

资助宣传工作是高校学生资助的重要组成部分。从高校学生资助宣传工作的现状出发,分析新时期加强高校资助宣传工作的意义,提出高校资助宣传工作的新理念,并从响应上级宣传号召,整合外部宣传资源、建设宣传长效机制,丰富宣传形式内容等方面提出做好高校资助宣传工作的具体举措。     

The Effects of Financial Aid on College Success of Two-Year Beginning Nontraditional Students

This study aims to understand the role of financial aid in college success of two-year beginning nontraditional students. By applying discrete time event history models with propensity score covariate adjustment to a nationally representative sample from BPS: 04/09, this study answers research questions centering around the effects of Pell Grants, subsidized student loans and unsubsidized student loans on six-year college outcomes of nontraditional students (i.e. degree attainment, system departure, and continuous enrollment without a degree). The results of this study suggest that these nontraditional students were most likely to drop out in the third college year and that all three types of financial aid appeared effective for reducing dropout risks, but not for encouraging timely degree completion. These findings have significant implications for policy and practice including the necessity for considering the complexity of nontraditional student pathways, backgrounds and unique needs when designing and implementing financial aid policy. The findings also contribute to discussions on ways to fund nontraditional students and provide recommendations for institutions serving large populations of nontraditional students to promote persistence to graduation.     

THE IMPACT OF INSTITUTIONAL CHOICE AND ENVIRONMENTS ON AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND WHITE STUDENTS' DEGREE EXPECTATIONS

This study examines the effects of individualcharacteristics, institutional characteristics andexperiences, and financial aid measures onAfrican-American and white college students' degreeaspirations. The main theoretical foundations for this studyare the status attainment models developed in the early1970s and Weidman's (1989) model of undergraduatesocialization. The study used the BeginningPostsecondary Students (BPS:90/92) data set, and the findingsshow that regression models between the two groups havemany similarities: Students' aspirations are mostly theresult of socioeconomic factors, initial degree aspirations, and institutional characteristics.Financial aid measures are not significant predictors ofaspirations for African-American students, although workstudy awards and fewer hours per week spent working significantly affect white students'aspirations. There are quite a few differences betweenthe groups' regression models. For instance,intellectual selfconfidence has opposite effects onaspirations for African-American and white students.African-American enrollment and faculty contactpositively affect AfricanAmerican students' aspirations,while tuition cost and peer contact have positiveeffects on white students' aspirations.     

Costs on the Mind: The Influence of the Financial Burden of College on Academic Performance and Cognitive Functioning

The current studies test the hypothesis that the financial burden of college can initiate a psychological process that has a negative influence on academic performance for students at selective colleges and universities. Prior studies linking high college costs and student loans to academic outcomes have not been grounded within relevant social psychological theory regarding how and when the financial burden of college can influence students’ psychological and cognitive processes. We test the hypothesis that the salient financial burden of college impairs students’ cognitive functioning, especially when it creates an identity conflict or perceived barrier to reaching a student’s desired financially successful future. First, we use longitudinal data from 28 selective colleges and universities to establish that students who accumulate student loan debt within these contexts are less likely to graduate from college because student loan debt predicts a decline in grades over time, even when controlling for factors related to socioeconomic status and prior achievement. Then, in an experiment, we advance research in this area with a direct, causal test of the proposed psychological process. An experimental manipulation that brings high college costs to mind impairs students’ cognitive functioning, but only when those thoughts create an identity conflict or a perceived barrier to reaching a student’s desired financially successful future.     

Financial aid and self-reports by disadvantaged students: The importance of being earnest

This study reports findings from a national survey of Hispanic financial aid recipients, and has the unusual feature of having student self-reports of income (theirs or their parents') and verified income figures. The findings are that students do not know very well how much they or their families earn; contrary to other studies, these data reveal that over half the students overestimated actual income. The implications of overreporting are discussed, both for aid awards and use of such self-reports in studies of students. The study warns against the consequences of requiring additional verification.     

Willingness to Pay and Preference for Private Institutions

This study focuses on the correlates of student preference for private institutions over public institutions in their senior year in high school, with a particular focus on the effects of students' subjective responses to tuition costs and to financial aid availability. The data for this study were drawn from a longitudinal study of postsecondary educational choice of high school students in the state of Indiana. The results indicate that in addition to student and family background and student academic characteristics, students' subjective responses to tuition costs and to financial aid availability have a substantial linkage with student preference for private or public institutions. This study suggests that family and ascribed characteristics alone do not explain student preference for the type of postsecondary institution. Students' subjective responses to tuition costs and to financial aid availability are also directly related to student preference for a certain type of postsecondary institution, independent of student family background and academic characteristics. This suggests that the willingness to pay, not only the ability to pay, plays a direct role in student college choice decisions. The implications for policy making are discussed.     

美国大学生资助需求公式及对中国的启示

美国大学生资助需求公式是上世纪中期发展起来的,用于判断一个大学生是否需要资助,需要资助的金额是多少。其理论基础是高等教育成本需要家庭和社会共同分担,维护高等教育公平。其基本结构是学生入学成本减去家庭预期贡献。公式的核心内容是计算大学生家庭可以用于高等教育的资金。美国大学生资助需求公式可以为建立中国大学生资助需求公式提供借鉴。     

The Role of Community College Financial Aid Counselors in Helping Students Understand and Utilize Financial Aid

Financial aid counselors are a primary source of information that many students rely upon to understand financial aid and how to pay for college. However, little is known about financial aid counselors at America's community colleges and their interactions with the students they serve. Using original survey data, this study examined the role these counselors play in helping community college students understand and make use of financial aid. The majority of counselors in the sample reported the counselor-to-student ratio at their college was one counselor for every 1,000 students (or higher), suggesting these counselors do not have the time or resources to meet the needs of every student who needs their advice. Counselors also identified common pitfalls their students experience during the financial aid process. These findings serve as the basis for recommendations intended to improve the utilization of financial aid among community college students.     

Financial aid tipping points: an analysis of aid and academic achievement at a California community college

The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between financial aid awards and measures of student academic achievement. Financial aid and academic records for 11,956 students attending an urban California community college were examined and analyzed using simultaneous linear regression and two-way factorial ANOVAs. Findings revealed a small inverse relationship between the amount of aid received; thus, students with higher levels of need had slightly lower levels of academic achievement. Further analysis suggests that financial aid awards were able to minimize the negative effects of low income for approximately 70% of financial aid recipients. However, significant differences in grades and the percentage of units completed emerged for the 30% students with the highest demonstrated levels of financial need, suggesting that these students have large levels of unmet need. Implications for institutional and state-level policy as well as for institutional practice are discussed.     

在家庭中对幼儿实施惩罚的原理及原则

惩罚是对儿童一种不良或违禁行为的有效纠正方式。应依据一定心理学原理运用惩罚原则 ,科学地实施惩罚 ,可避免一些副作用和不良影响的发生。     

Child development in rural China: children left behind by their migrant parents and children of nonmigrant families

Using recent cross-sectional data of rural children aged from 8 to 18 in Hunan Province of China, this article examines psychological, behavioral, and educational outcomes and the psychosocial contexts of these outcomes among children left behind by one or both of their rural-to-urban migrant parents compared to those living in nonmigrant families. The results showed that left-behind children were disadvantaged in health behavior and school engagement but not in perceived satisfaction. The child's psychosocial environment, captured by family socioeconomic status, socializing processes, peer and school support, and psychological traits, were associated with, to varying extent, child developmental outcomes in rural China. These influences largely remain constant for the sampled children regardless of their parents' migrant status.     

助学贷款制度与贫困生资助体系研究

高校贫困生不断增加的状况,要求进一步完善助学贷款制度和贫困生资助体系。国家助学贷款作为助学的主渠道,具有自身特点,但在制度上仍存在缺陷,必须完善相关制度设计,使其更符合我国国情。同时,要构建政府、高校、银行、社会资助贫困生的立体体系,发挥助学贷款和高校资助体系的良好效用。     

浅析高职院校的贫困生认定工作

贫困生的认定是高职院校贫困生资助工作的基础环节,其准确性直接影响到高职院校贫困生资助的效益与效率,影响到高等教育机会的公平与均等。在新资助政策下,高校家庭困难学生认定工作存在一系列问题。本文阐述了高职院校当前贫困生认定工作的现状,分析了当前贫困生认定现状中存在的问题以及问题存在的原因,并提出了对应的改进措施。