High-Performing Pell Institutions: A Typology and Analysis of Institutions With High Low-Income Student Success

• In Event: Addressing Essential Needs of College Students

Abstract

The benefits of a college credential have never been more salient than today, yet low-income students remain significantly less likely than higher-income peers to enroll or earn a degree. Despite this reality, a few institutions have high success rates for Pell-eligible populations. Using data from IPEDS and Opportunity Insights, we develop a typology and inventory of these High Performing Pell institutions: institutions with higher than average and higher than predicted Pell graduation rates, lower than average Pell/Non-Pell graduation rate gaps, and higher than average upper social mobility rates. We find traditional predictors do not help to explain this high performance and apply modern text mining practices to examine mission statements as one indicator of factors associated with high Pell performance.

Authors

• Elizabeth Dunens, University of Minnesota - Rochester

• Taylor K. Odle, University of Pennsylvania