Research and Publications - Education Policy Center
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Item The 2016 Proposals for Higher Education: A View from the States: A Preliminary Report from a Special Section of the 2016 National Survey of Access and Finance Issues(Education Policy Center, 2016-11) Katsinas, Stephen G.; Adair, J. Lucas; Qiao, Fei; University of Alabama TuscaloosaThis report is based upon the first 36 responses received from the2016 National Survey of Access and Finance Issues conducted bythe Education Policy Center (EPC) at the University of Alabama.Since 2007, the EPC has conducted annual surveys of members of theNational Council of State Directors of Community Colleges (NCSDCC). Atleast 49 of 51 possible responses have been obtained each year. NCSDCCmember’s knowledge of higher education access and finance issues extendswell beyond their own sector. Community colleges are a portal for millions ofacademically-talented, first-generation, minority, and low-income high schoolgraduates to higher education and the American dream.This report examines federal issues in higher education, including specificissues in the battleground states of the 2016 election (the 14 states definedby Real Clear Politics). This analysis contains 8 of the 14 battleground states.Further analysis of all 14-battleground states is forthcoming.Item Access to Early Childhood Interventions and First Class Pre-K in Alabama & the Black Belt RegionWhann, Hunter; Keeney, Noel E.; Jacobs, Emily; Katsinas, Stephen G.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem After the Great Recession: Higher Education's New Normal: An Analysis of National Surveys of Access and Finance Issues, 2011 to 2015(Education Policy Center, 2016-01) Katsinas, Stephen G.; D'Amico, Mark M.; Friedel, Janice N.; Adair, J. Lucas; Warner, Jake L.; Malley, Michael S.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaThis report draws upon National Surveys of Access and Finance Issues for the five years following the end of federal stimulus funding during the Great Recession. What has happed to public education and why? We find the following:The economic recovery following the Great Recession continues: In 2015 legislative sessions, respondents from just ten states report “Recession, producing a decline in state revenues” as a top budget driver, the lowest rating since 2006. As in 20147, during 2015 state legislative sessions, Elementary and Secondary Education and Medicaid were the top two budget drivers. Respondents from just six states report mid-year cuts at their public community colleges and regional and flagship universities.Item Alabama Articulation and General Studies Committee & Statewide Transfer and Articulation Reporting System: Evaluation Project Final Report(Education Policy Center, 2016-09-30) Katsinas, Stephen G.; Bray, Nathaniel P.; Dotherow, James E.; Malley, Michael S.; Warner, Jake L.; Adair, J. Lucas; Roberts, John; Phillips, Undre V.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaThis evaluation essentially revolves around two key questions: How are we doing? & Where do we go from here?In considering these questions, it is imperative to differentiate between the terms “accountability” and “responsibility,” which all too often are used interchangeably. In determining the duties for which the AGSC&STARS are accountable, we find nearly unanimous compliance, and this is addressed in the first three guiding questions of the evaluation set forth by the five-member AGSC External Review Subcommittee:Is the AGSC&STARS program effective in meeting the legislative intent stated in Act 94-202, the original authorizing legislation?Were the recommendations that were made in the 2002 evaluation followed?Are key constituents satisfied with the services provided by AGSC&STARS?What recommendations does our study team have for improvements?Item Black Belt Manufacturing and Economic ProspectsKatsinas, Stephen G.; Bray, Nathaniel J.; Bowen, Jonathan; Corley, Emily Grace; Keeney, Noel E.; Whann, Hunter; Jacobs, Emily; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem The Black Belt’s Labor Force Participation Lags Behind the Rest of Alabama & the NationKatsinas, Stephen G.; Keeney, Noel E.; Jacobs, Emily; Whann, Hunter; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem COVID-19 and Alabama’s Black BeltCorley, Emily Grace; Till, Garrett; O'Brien, Sean; Katsinas, Stephen G.; Bray, Nathaniel J.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem Defining Alabama’s Black Belt RegionKatsinas, Stephen G.; Keeney, Noel E.; Jacobs, Emily; Whann, Hunter; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem The Economic & Social Impacts of Alabama Public Higher EducationKatsinas, Stephen G.; Koh, Jonathan P.; Murphy, David S.; Lacey, Vincent A.; Fincher, Mark E.; DeMonBrun, R. Matthew; Bray, Nathaniel J.; Breaux, Arleene P.; Malley, Michael S. Jr.; Adair, J. Lucas; Shedd, Louis E.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaThe Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama has completed an objective analysis to determine whether there is a quantifiable relationship between the funding of Alabama’s universities and the per capita income of Alabama’s citizens. The study revealed a statistically signifcant relationship. Alabama’s state-wide per capita income rises in direct proportion to Alabama’s funding of its public higher education institutions. Alabama gains a quantifiable return on its investment in higher education. Simply put, the more Alabama spends on universities, the better off Alabamians will be.Item Educational Attainment, Community College, and Transfer in the Black BeltTill, Garrett; Corley, Emily Grace; O'Brien, Sean; Katsinas, Stephen G.; Bray, Nathaniel; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem The Growing Impact of New Pell Grant Funding: A Statewide Profile of Iowa's Community CollegesHagedorn, Linda Serra; Mensel, R. Frank; Friedel, Janice N.; Lui, Joyce; Smith, Dustin; Tarrant, Melissa; Kilgo, Rhonda; Clark, Chad; Katsinas, Stephen G.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem Healthcare: A Key Challenge in Alabama’s Black BeltJacobs, Emily; Whann, Hunter; Corley, Emily Grace; Bowen, Jonathan; Keeney, Noel; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem The Impact of New Pell Grant Restrictions on Community Colleges: A Three State Study of Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi(Education Policy Center, 2013-01) Katsinas, Stephen G.; Davis, James E.; Friedel, Janice N.; Koh, Jonathan P.; Grant, Phillip D.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaFrom Fall 2011 to Fall 2012, enrollment declined at 47 of the 62 two-year colleges in Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi, and as shown below, changes in Pell Grant eligibility is the major reason why. This report argues that community college students in these three states 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.Issues of access to postsecondary education have long been an interest of the Education Policy Center at The University of Alabama. The Center has conducted 18 studies over the past five years on rural access issues, and its associates have been involved with numerous additional refereed publications on rural community college finance, STEM, students, and financial aid issues. It is most appropriate that we examine the impact of recent Pell Grant eligibility changes at community collegesin Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi.Item Infrastructure in Alabama’s Black BeltKatsinas, Stephen G.; Corley, Emily Grace; Till, Garrett; O'Brien, Sean; Bray, Nathaniel J.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem Internet Access Disparities in Alabama & the Black BeltKatsinas, Stephen G.; Keeney, Noel E.; Jacobs, Emily; Corley, Emily Grace; Whann, Hunter; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem K-12 STEM Education in Alabama’s Black BeltO'Brien, Sean; Corley, Emily Grace; Till, Garrett; Courchesne, Eric; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem Maine's Pell Grants: Heavy Lifting(Education Policy Center) Mensel, Frank; Malley, Michael; Warren, WilliamThe purpose of this survey was to document 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. The survey instrument was developed by Frank Mensel, who has provided leadership for similar studies conducted by the Education Policy Center in recent years (this study of Maine is the 19th study of Pell Grants conducted by the Center since 2011). Data collection in Maine was conducted by Dr. William Warren, Academic Vice President Emeritus at Southern Maine Community College, who succeeded in gathering survey returns from all seven colleges in the system. This study of Maine reconfirms previous EPC findings that Pell Grants are the wellspring of college access in rural America. That claim - that Pell Grants are rural America’s most important human resource development program – has been branded as hyperbole by some, but was confirmed by prior EPC sur- veys of Iowa (2011; found at: http://www.uaedpolicy.ua.edu/pell.html), Kansas (2012; found at: http://www.uaedpolicy.ua.edu/pell.html), and our three-state study of community colleges in Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana (2013; found at: http://www.uaedpolicy.ua.edu/pell.html). Data from these studies have been presented on behalf of the Rural Community College Alliance at the U.S. Department of Education (2011, 2012 and 2013), the White House (2012 and 2013), and on Capitol Hill (2013). This study pushes these claims a notch higher.Item Oregon Pell Grants: Women Raise Rural Vigor(Education Policy Center) Mensel, Frank; Malley, Michael; Thomas, ReineThe Pell Grant voucher is the Federal Government’s most significant program for access to Higher Education. 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. Much of the series focus so far has been rural America. Of Oregon’s 17 community colleges, 14 are classified as rural-serving by the Basic Classification of the prestigous Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The other three are Portland, the largest urban community college of the Pacific Northwest, and the nearby suburban colleges of Mt. Hood and Clackamas. Most conspicuous in the data is the heavy dependence of rural colleges on the Pell Grant voucher. On average, at rural Oregon’s 14 colleges, Pell Grant recipients number more than half of the FTE enrollment. This is consistent with earlier state wide studies across Kansas, Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi, in which rural colleges commonly show half or more of their FTE enrollment earning credits through Pell.Item Pell Grant's Vital Role in Lifting Up Mississippi(Education Policy Center) Katsinas, Stephen G.; Davis, James E.; Koh, Jonathan P.; Grant, Phillip D.Recent years have seen significant growth in the federal government’s foundational program to provide for access to college, the Pell Grant program. Nationally, the number of Pell participants have increased by 50% since 2008, from 6 million to 9 million students. This reflects a federal commitment to serve a fast-growing traditional-aged population—there were one million more Americans ages 18 to 24 years old in 2012 than in 2009. For Mississippi students and families, and community colleges, the timing of these increases could not have been better, as the state entered a long recession. The National Bureau of Economic Research, the federal agency that determines when recessions start and end, affixes June 2007 as the recession’s start. In July of 2007, the unemployment rate was above 5% in just 12 states; by July of 2009 it was below 5% in only 3. The “Great Recession” produced double-digit statewide unemployment rates in Mississippi. In October 2012, Mississippi’s statewide unemployment rate of 9.2% was well above the 7.8% national average.4 Only the northeast and coastal regions have lower rates.Item Performance Versus Promises: An Evaluation of Teach for America's Research Page(Education Policy Center, 2013-07) Kovacs, Philip; Slate-Young, Erica; University of Alabama TuscaloosaTeach for America is a widely praised program that puts teachers, usually liberal arts graduates from highly selective colleges and universities with minimal pedagogical training, into school classrooms.After laying off 300 veteran teachers in what was billed as a necessary budgetary move, Huntsville City Schools Board of Education announced a program to add TFA teachers which would cost a minimum of $700,000. This amount would eventually increase to $1.7 million. The contract stipulation that at least 170 TFA recruits would be hired in four, years makes the possible salary expense close to $ 2 million.