The Success Boston initiative was launched in 2008 to improve Boston public high school graduates' access to and success in college, particularly for members of underrepresented groups. This report summarizes results from the second of three reports examining the classes of 2013 and 2014 and examines whether and how coaching affects students'…

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…

Traditionally, modeling student retention has been done by deriving student success predictors and measuring the likelihood of success based on several background factors such as age, race, gender, and other pre-college variables, also known as the input-output model. Increasingly, however, researchers have used mediating factors of the student…

The cost of attending college has risen sharply over the last 40 years. Although more credit and grant aid have been made available to students, there are still major gaps between aid and the cost of attendance for many students in the United States, all of whom are left to figure out whether they can afford the remaining costs associated with…

Despite increases in postsecondary enrollment at American universities and colleges, there are still significant gaps in who matriculates to college and persists through graduation. Low-income students and students of color continue to be underrepresented in institutions of higher education; for many of these students, a lack of awareness of…

In response to the increasing cost of college, colleges and universities are leveraging financial aid and academic support services to implement access and success programs intended to help financially disadvantaged students afford and persist through a baccalaureate degree program. This research is a study of the efficacy of one such program at a…

National statistics continue to show substantial disparities in the postsecondary enrollment and completion rates between more and less advantaged groups. Despite gains made on the part of low-income, first generation, and minority students in the areas of access, persistence, and academic achievement, gaps still exist (Avery & Kane, 2004;…

In January 2009, in the last week of the Bush Administration, the U.S. Department of Education (ED), upon orders from the departing political appointee staff, published the final report in a long running National Evaluation of Upward Bound (UB). The study was conducted by the contractor, Mathematica Policy Research. After more than a year in…