Promise for Whom? “Free-College” Programs and Enrollments by Race and Gender Classifications at Public, 2-Year Colleges

Abstract

Promise programs are proliferating across the United States, with wide variation in their design. Using national data on 33 Promise programs affecting single, 2-year colleges, this study examines program effects on first-time, full-time college enrollments of students by race/ethnicity and gender classification. Results suggest Promise programs are associated with large percent increases in enrollments of Black and Hispanic students, especially students classified as females, at eligible colleges. Promise programs with merit requirements are associated with higher enrollment of White and Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander female students; those with income requirements are negatively associated with enrollment of most demographic groups. More generous Promise programs are associated with greater enrollment increases among demographic groups with historically higher levels of postsecondary attainment.

Does Free Community College Improve Student Outcomes? Evidence From a Regression Discontinuity Design

“…9 Table 2 demonstrates that in addition to some shifts in the outcome measures, there are also demographic changes after the implementation of Tulsa Achieves. First, in line with previous literature, there are significantly higher proportions of students of color and Pell grant recipients attending TCC in the post-implementation years (Gándara & Li, 2020). I provide a visual depiction of these changes over time in Supplementary Appendix Figure A1 in the online version of the journal, which make it clear that the TCC student body was more racially diverse, younger and despite enrolling more Pell Grant recipients overall, the post-implementation cohorts have higher average estimated family contributions (for the limited set of students for which these data are available).…”

“…In fact, there is only one study so far that includes narrow promise programs and it only includes an analysis of enrollment, not of persistence and completion. This study estimates a 9% to 22% increase in enrollment across the 32 narrow promise programs, with policy design serving as a key moderating factor (Gándara & Li, 2020). However, an examination of how narrow programs affect student persistence and completion is notably absent from current analyses.…”

“…So far, scholars have explored the first two elements of design variation, but what merits further exploration are the differences in the effects of programs that have wide or narrow institutional eligibility—while some programs offer tuition-free college for students to attend any institution in the country, others are more narrowly targeted at single-community colleges. Indeed, even though 55% of recorded promise programs narrowly target a single-community college (Perna & Leigh, 2017), no published study to date has examined the effects of a narrow promise program on outcomes beyond initial college enrollment (Gándara & Li, 2020).…”

Will college promise programs improve or reduce equity? Understanding the contextual conditions that influence program implementation

“…College promise programs are a potential mechanism for advancing the historical mission of community colleges and advancing equity in higher education. Although we know that program characteristics vary (Perna & Smith, 2020a) and that the effects of a program on college enrollment vary based on program characteristics (Gándara & Li, 2020), only a few scholars (e.g., Smith, 2020) have explored the forces that contribute to variation in program characteristics. As predicted for programs with low policy conflict and high ambiguity (Matland, 1995), and consistent with other program implementation research (Dowd et al, 2013;Honig, 2006;Nienhusser, 2014Nienhusser, , 2018, our findings point to the importance of contextual conditions for understanding the characteristics of programs implemented at community colleges and the consequences of implemented programs for equity.…”

“…Research demonstrates that the effects of a promise program on enrollment of students from different racial/ethnic groups vary based on eligibility criteria (e.g., merit, need) and other program features (Gándara & Li, 2020). Although suggesting the importance of program design, we know little about why programs have different eligibility requirements, offer particular financial awards, and vary in other program components.…”