Institutional Resources for Navigating Complexity: Designing Policies to Increase College Access and Completion

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Higher education provides a critical pathway for upward mobility in the United States. However, despite the benefits and the equalizing potential of college, there remains substantial stratification in access to college and in college completion. Low-income students still face persistent barriers in college access and completion. These include the rising cost of college and uncertainty about financial aid, complex family circumstances; and institutional resources that are not designed to meet the needs of students who take nontraditional pathways into and through higher education. This panel brings together three papers that provide evidence from a variety of settings—and using multiple methodological approaches—that speak to the need for well designed institutional resources to help students overcome the barriers they face to access and persist through postsecondary education. 

The papers on this panel provide evidence on the valuable role that institutional resources can play in helping students access the resources they need to attend college. Further, they speak to the consequences for student outcomes when those institutional resources are unequally distributed or fall short of meeting the needs of students pursuing nontraditional pathways through postsecondary education. Together, the papers on this panel highlight the need for public policies that aim to reduce inequality in college access and success to address the complex—and heterogeneous—needs of students. 

The first paper, “Exploring the Mechanisms and Direct Impact of College Access Advising: The Case of AdviseTN,” investigates a unique college advising model, AdviseTN, which places full-time college advisors in high schools across Tennessee. They provide evidence that college advising can be a powerful resource in helping students access college, in part by helping them navigate the complex bureaucratic processes associated with enrolling. The second paper, “‘Built by Adults for Adults:’ How front-line administrators shape take-up of state need-based financial aid,” explores the role of high school counselors in facilitating access to state financial aid—and the limitations of relying on counselors as navigators in this process. Using a state-wide free-tuition program in Michigan, this paper identifies the ways that front-line navigators, like school counselors, can help to alleviate barriers to college; however, relying on individual actors to ease bureaucratic barriers can lead to inequality. The third paper, “Taking the long way: Examining patterns of progress and success by long-term persisting Michigan students,” describes a population of nontraditional college students—long term persisters—who are often not represented in policy conversations about college attainment, and whose needs might not be met by traditional campus resources. This paper highlights that reducing inequality in educational attainment requires targeted institutional resources across the pipeline—from college access through college completion. Together these policies highlight the value of well-designed and well-implemented institutional resources for supporting the unique needs of students, and the importance of attention to designing policies to meet varying student needs and careful implementation to ensure equitable distribution of resources. 

Policy Area

• Education

Chair

• Katherine Michelmore, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Discussant

• Preeya Mbekeani, American Institutes for Research

Individual Presentations

• Exploring the Mechanisms and Direct Impact of College Access Advising: The Case of AdviseTN - Presenting Author: Isabel McMullen, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Taylor K. Odle, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• “Built by Adults for Adults:” How front-line administrators shape take-up of state need-based financial aid - Presenting Author: Elizabeth Burland, University of Connecticut; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija, University of Michigan Ann Arbor; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Xavier Fields, University of Michigan; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Nathan Sotherland, University of Michigan Ann Arbor; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Megan Tompkins-Stange, University of Michigan

• Taking the long way: Examining patterns of progress and success by long-term persisting Michigan students - Non-Presenting Co-Author: Stacey Lee Brockman, Wayne State University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija, University of Michigan Ann Arbor; Presenting Author: Huong Nguyen, Wayne State University

• The Calculus Project and Diversifying the STEM Pipeline - Non-Presenting Co-Author: Joshua Goodman, Boston University; Presenting Author: Hanyun Cui, Boston University

Organizer

• Elizabeth Burland, University of Connecticut