In 2010, Arkansas became the most recent state to establish a state lottery program, which allowed lottery revenue to serve as the primary funding source for the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship. The primary goal of this research study was to begin understanding the type of impact the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship funded by the…

The past three decades have seen charter schools emerge as a prominent and controversial alternative to traditional public schools. This policy brief examines "Thirty Years of Charter Schools: What Does Lottery-Based Research Tell Us?" which summarizes 40 studies that have used lottery research designs to analyze how charter schools…

New York City's elite public specialized high schools have a long history of offering a rigorous college preparatory education to the City's most academically talented students. Though immensely popular and highly selective, their policy of admitting students on the basis of a single entrance exam has been heavily criticized. Many argue, for…

The choice of tools with which to select medical students is complex and controversial. This study aimed to identify the extent to which scores on each of three admission tools (Admission GPA, UMAT and structured interview) predicted the outcomes of the first major clinical year (Y4) of a 6 year medical programme. Data from three student cohorts…

The New Mexico Higher Education Department strives to bring leadership, guidance, and assistance to New Mexico's higher education stakeholders. The HED is committed to promoting best practices, institutional fiscal responsibility, and student achievement. Everything the agency does is through the lens of supporting New Mexico's higher education…

The New Mexico Higher Education Department (HED) and higher education institutions (HEIs) have set long-term statewide goals to increase 4-year graduation rates, improve transfer and articulation, and improve remedial education outcomes. HED is pursuing these goals through the following initiatives: (1) Statewide common course numbering and…

The current study examined the validity of the selection process used for the National Merit Scholarship Program (NMSP) to identify scholarship winners. Namely, this study examined whether students who advanced to higher NMSP recognition levels (Commended Students, Semifinalists, and various levels of award winners) had higher college performance,…

In light of the recent bans on affirmative action in higher education, this paper provides new evidence on the effects of alternative admissions policies on the persistence and college completion of minority students. I find that the change from affirmative action to the Top 10% Plan in Texas decreased both retention and graduation rates of…

This paper examines the impact of attending different categories of selective institutions on students' college completion. Specifically, it explores differences in the impact that selectivity of an institution has by race and ethnicity. The analysis accounts for the impact of individual and institutional characteristics and corrects for omitted…