A new study funded by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) found a correlation between public community college promise programs and an increase in enrollment among female and underrepresented students.
The research study, “Promise for Whom? ‘Free-College’ Programs and Enrollments by Race and Gender Classifications at Public, 2-Year Colleges,” analyzed the impact of 33 promise programs at 32 community colleges during the academic years of 2000-2001 and 2014-2015. The findings were published in the Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis Journal.
There was a 23% increase in enrollment at community colleges with promise programs compared to those without, according to the study.
“The budget pressures facing states are very real, as is the developing crisis in college enrollment among the country’s least advantaged students,” said Dr. Amy Li, co-author of the report and an assistant professor of educational policy studies at Florida International University. “Given such encouraging evidence of the effectiveness of community college promise programs on initial college enrollment, working to protect them should be among the top priorities of policymakers.”
Broken down by demographics, community colleges with promise programs saw enrollment increase by 47% of Black males, 51% of Black females, 40% of Hispanic males and 52% of Hispanic females, the report found.
The increase in enrollment “confirmed the idea that free college is more than just making college more affordable,” said Dr. Denisa Gándara, co-author of the report and an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Policy and Leadership at Southern Methodist University. “Because when we look at other studies that look at tuition price reductions and the effects of reducing tuition, we do not see nearly the size of the effects that we see with promise programs.”
On the other hand, there was no enrollment growth among Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (API) students.
