A total of 19 reports/issue briefs, and 3 refereed articles, as well as 25 presentations at state, regional, and national meetings have resulted from the Education Policy Center’s on-going policy research on Pell Grants and student access since 2010. This work has involved 18 EPC staff, senior fellows and fellows, and research associates.
The first of EPC’s Pell studies began after observing long lines of students signing up for new Summer Pell funding at community colleges serving some of the highest poverty rural counties in America in May 2010. Nationally, the number of Pell recipients grew from 6 to 9 million from 2009 to 2012; President Obama predicted 800,000 new Pell recipients in 8 years in signing legislation expanding Pell funding in March 2010. Preliminary results from EPC’s April 2011 study showed the impact of new Pell funding, presented at the U.S. Department of Education in February 2011, found just under half that number enrolled at just 205 community colleges in one year!
Our February 2012 study of Pell grants in Kansas found to our surprise that west Kansas counties where the population had declined by 5% between the 2000 and 2010 Census, Pell not only turned part-time students into full-time students as expected, Pell grew the base of part-time students as well. When our 2012 study of Pell’s impact in Kansas was presented at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, Secretary Arne Duncan said increases in Pell funding was perhaps the single most gratifying accomplishment of his tenure. EPC studies of the impact of increased Pell funding in the states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and seven other states revealed similar findings. The March 2012 companion technical report resulted in statewide coverage.
But the wildly popular new 2010 and 2011 Summer Pell program created a funding shortfall, resulting in federal legislation passed in June 2012 mandating new Pell Eligibility restrictions, effective immediately in August 2012. EPC’s study November 2012 study commissioned by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, A Study of Pell Grants in Alabama, found nearly 5,000 students lost Pell Grant eligibility in the Fall 2012 term alone, and projected 16,500 Alabama public two- and four-year institution students would lose Pell eligibility in the 2012-13 academic year. A companion study conducted by EPC for the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges produced statewide headlines. In February 2013, an EPC study released at a Congressional Briefing hosted by U.S. Senator Thad Cochran, found community colleges lost 17,000 students across the 62 community colleges in Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
Winter 2023
Declining Pell Support at Community Colleges Since the Great Recession
Stephen G. Katsinas, Noel E. Keeney, Nathaniel J. Bray, Patrick J. Kelly
This article analyzes U.S. Department of Education data on appropriations
on Pell Grants using the new Mission-Driven Classification (MDC)4 to
disaggregate enrollment, finance, and need-based Pell Grant data by major
public higher education sector and, within community colleges, by geography
(rural, suburban, and urban) as well as by the presence or lack of local funding.
December 2020
A Lottery-Funded Alabama College Promise & Alabama Opportunity Scholarship Program
Jonathan R. Bowen, Emily Grace Corley
This report examines state gaming legislation on lottery proceeds and provides data on expected impacts of a College Promise program and Opportunity Scholarship in Alabama.
August 2014
Oregon Pell Grants: Women Raise Rural Vigor
Frank Mensel, Michael Malley, Reine Thomas
This study of the Pell Grant voucher awarded by Oregon community colleges in the 2012-13 college year adds another graphic chapter to the series of such studies led by the Education Policy Center at The University of Alabama.
September 2013
Maine’s Pell Grants: Heavy Lifting
Frank Mensel, Michael Malley, William Warren
This survey documents the access Pell Grants provided for students attending Maine’s community colleges in both the Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 semesters, both of which are represented in the totals.
July 2013
Performance versus Promises: An Evaluation of Teach for America’s Research Page
Philip Kovacs, Erica Slate-Young
Philip Kovacs, Erica Slate-Young
This report analyzes the validity of the statement made on Teach For America’s website, “A large and growing body of independent research shows that Teach for America corps members make as much of an impact on student achievement as veteran teachers,” by reviewing the various reports listed on TFA’s research web page.
February 2013
The Impact of the New Pell Grant Restrictions on Community Colleges: A Three State Study
Stephen G. Katsinas, Janice Nahra Friedel, James E. Davis, Michael T. Miller
This presentation, covering one of the first studies to document the impact of the new Pell eligibility restrictions passed by Congress in June 2012, effective with the fall 2012 term, analyzes both quantitative and qualitative data to look at the specific effects of the new restrictions in Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
2013
Stephen G. Katsinas, James E. Davis, Janice N. Friedel, Jonathan P. Koh, Phillip D. Grant
This report argues that community college students in Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi are highly sensitive to changes in Pell Grant eligibility, and that new restrictions enacted by Congress in June 2012, effective with the Fall 2012 term, have had a dramatically negative impact.
December 2012
Pell Grant’s Vital Role in Lifting up Mississippi
Stephen G. Katsinas, James E. Davis, Jonathan P. Koh, Phillip D. Grant
This report argues enrollment declines at Mississippi community colleges can be directly traced to changes enacted by Congress in June 2012, effective with the Fall 2012 term, to the federal Pell Grant program.
November 2012
A Study of Pell Grants in Alabama
Stephen G. Katsinas, Nathaniel J. Bray, Jonathan P. Koh, Phillip D. Grant
This report argues enrollment declines at Alabama community colleges can be directly traced to changes enacted by Congress in June 2012, effective with the Fall 2012 term, to the federal Pell Grant program.
March 2012
The Growing Impact of New Pell Grant Funding: A Statewide Profile of Wyoming’s Community Colleges
Stephen G. Katsinas, Linda Serra Hagedorn, R. Frank Mensel, Janice N. Friedel, Rebecca C. Midkiff, Joyce Lui, Dustin Smith, Melissa Tarrant, Rhonda Kilgo, Chad Clark
The survey was conducted in summer through winter of 2010 to both quantify and qualify the impact of Pell Grants through the lens of higher education administrators in Wyoming. Selected state directors of community colleges were contacted to assist in disseminating and collecting survey responses. Responses from 205 community colleges were received. As Wyoming data were reported by individual colleges, the data here may vary from state issued reports.
March 2012
The Growing Impact of New Pell Grant Funding: A Statewide Profile of Colorado’s Community Colleges
Stephen G. Katsinas, Linda Serra Hagedorn, R. Frank Mensel, Janice N. Friedel, Rebecca C. Midkiff, Joyce Lui, Dustin Smith, Melissa Tarrant, Rhonda Kilgo, Chad Clark
The survey was conducted in summer through winter of 2010 to both quantify and qualify the impact of Pell Grants through the lens of higher education administrators in Colorado. Selected state directors of community colleges were contacted to assist in disseminating and collecting survey responses. Responses from 205 community colleges were received. As Colorado data were reported by individual colleges, the data here may vary from state issued reports.
March 2012
The Growing Impact of New Pell Grant Funding: A Statewide Profile of Florida’s Community Colleges
Stephen G. Katsinas, Linda Serra Hagedorn, R. Frank Mensel, Janice N. Friedel, Rebecca C. Midkiff, Joyce Lui, Dustin Smith, Melissa Tarrant, Rhonda Kilgo, Chad Clark
The survey was conducted in summer through winter of 2010 to both quantify and qualify the impact of Pell Grants through the lens of higher education administrators in Florida. Selected state directors of community colleges were contacted to assist in disseminating and collecting survey responses. Responses from 205 community colleges were received.
June 2011
The Growing Impact of New Pell Grant Funding: A Statewide Profile of Iowa’s Community Colleges
Stephen G. Katsinas, Linda Serra Hagedorn, R. Frank Mensel, Janice N. Friedel, Joyce Lui, Dustin Smith, Melissa Tarrant, Rhonda Kilgo, Chad Clark
The survey was conducted in summer through winter of 2010 to both quantify and qualify the impact of Pell Grants through the lens of higher education administrators in Iowa. Selected state directors of community colleges were contacted to assist in disseminating and collecting survey responses. Responses from nearly 200 community colleges were received. As Iowa data were reported by individual colleges, the data here may vary from state issued reports.
April 2011
The Growing Impact of New Pell Grant Funding: A profile of more than 200 Community Colleges
Stephen G. Katsinas, Linda Serra Hagedorn, R. Frank Mensel, Janice N. Friedel, Joyce Lui, Dustin Smith, Melissa Tarrant, Rhonda Kilgo, Chad Clark, J. Matthew Short
The survey was conducted in summer through winter of 2010 to both quantify and qualify the impact of Pell Grants through the lens of higher education administrators across the country. Selected state directors of community colleges were contacted to assist in disseminating and collecting survey responses. Responses from nearly 200 community colleges were received from 25 states, and complete or nearly complete responses from community and technical colleges in 9 states were obtained.