Since the 1940s, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and its predecessor agencies have contracted with state approving agencies (SAA) to assess whether schools and training programs offer education of sufficient quality for veterans to receive VA education assistance benefits. SAAs are created or designated by state governments but are…

This report highlights the affordability gaps faced by California's community colleges. Despite the lowest tuition in the country and tuition waivers for the lowest-income students, many California students struggle to afford the total cost of education, which includes housing, food, health care, and textbooks. And although California students are…

This report presents information from the Winter 2005-06 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) web-based data collection. Tabulations represent data requested from all postsecondary institutions participating in Title IV federal student financial aid programs. The tables in this publication include data on the number of staff…

This booklet contains detailed information about topics related to opportunities offered by "No Child Left Behind" ("NCLB"): (1) closing the achievement gap; (2) parental involvement; (3) school choice; and (4) tutoring and financial aid for college. The publication is designed as a working tool, including space for individual…

This booklet is designed to help potential first-generation college students think about and plan for college. It provides helpful information on the following topics: (1) reasons to go to college; (2) what it takes to get into college; (3) who can help with the planning and admissions process; (4) how to choose a college and succeed once there;…

America's financial aid system provides too much taxpayer support to banks making college loans, demands too little of students assuming them, and burdens families with too much debt. The system fails to reward rigorous college-preparatory work in high school and penalizes students who hold jobs while in college. Lenders make extraordinary…

Women's studies programs, multicultural centers, and organizations to support gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students are campus fixtures. Few now question diversity's contribution to the education of all students. Jennifer Duffy suggests that it's time to acknowledge, support, and celebrate one more form of diversity that is mostly…

As an enterprise that relies heavily on state funding, public higher education has long seen its support rise and fall with the boom-and-bust cycle of the economy. This chapter examines how the University System of Maryland repositioned itself as a state system able to thrive in an era of permanently diminished resources and perpetually escalating…

Community colleges are unique among higher education institutions in their potential access to local appropriations as well as state funding. A total of 26 states reported to the Education Commission of the States in 2001 that community colleges in their states received some share of local funding. Using data for 781 public community colleges, we…

The Educational Policy Institute (EPI) is an international think tank launched in 2002 "to expand educational opportunity for low-income and other historically underrepresented students through high-level research and analysis." Financial aid to students is a major element in expanding opportunity and thus is a major focus of EPI. Alex…

The State of Washington prides itself on having a relatively vibrant economy that centers on high technology businesses that depends on a relatively highly educated labor force. The state has been lavish in its support of higher education, and probably most citizens would agree that the state has a pretty good system of schools to serve the…

This report summarizes 2006-2007 evaluation results of AISD's Project ADVANCE activities. Project ADVANCE staff worked with high school students and their parents to prepare students for postsecondary enrollment.

Over the last decade, concern has grown regarding the faculty shortage in special education (Sindelar & Rosenberg, 2003). In part as a reaction to a federally funded study conducted in 1999, the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) increased funding for doctoral study in the form of Special Education Leadership Personnel Grants (Gilmore,…

This guide to paying for college is written for families that expect to pay most, if not all, of the costs of college out of savings, investments, gifts, inheritances, borrowed funds, or a combination. It outlines usual approaches but also indicates some unorthodox methods. Chapters cover the following topics: (1) planning for college expenses;…

As part of a series of field hearings across the nation on the reauthorization of the Higher Education of 1965, the Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education met in Pleasant Hill, California, to hear testimony specifically on access to education for children of lower and middle class families in California. Discussed were the rising cost of higher…