Also known as “free tuition” and “free college” programs, college promise programs are an emerging approach for increasing higher education attainment of people in particular places. To maximize the effectiveness of their efforts and investments, program leaders and policymakers need research-based evidence to inform program design, implementation, and evaluation. With the goal of addressing this knowledge need, this volume presents a collection of research studies that examine several categories and variations of college promise programs. These theoretically grounded empirical investigations use varied data sources and analytic techniques to examine the effects of college promise programs that have different design features and operate in different places. Individually and collectively, the results of these studies have implications for the design and implementation of promise programs if these programs are to create meaningful improvements in attainment for people from underserved groups. The authors’ efforts also provide a useful foundation for the next generation of college promise research.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• 1 Introduction Improving Research-Based Knowledge of College Promise Programs
• 2 Setting the Stage A History and Overview of the College Promise Movement
• Part 1 What Do We Know From Prior Research About the Effects of Promise Programs?
  • 3 Promises Fulfilled? A Systematic Review of the Impacts of College Promise Programs
  • 4 A Systematic Review of Evidence on the Effectiveness of Targeted College Access Programs Offering No-Cost or Subsidized College Enrollment
• Part 2 What Are the Effects of Different Types of College Promise Programs?
  • 5 The Effect of the El Dorado Promise Scholarship on Higher Education, K–12, and Community Outcomes
  • 6 The Promise of Free College (and Its Potential Pitfalls): Evidence From a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Performance-Based Aid Program
  • 7 Keeping the Promise: Early Outcomes of Tennessee’s Tuition-Free College Initiative
  • 8 Echo of a Promise: The Impact of State-Designated Michigan Promise Zones
  • 9 The Promise of Summer: A Case Study of Motivation and Impact Among Low-Income Students
  • 10 The Promise of “Free” Tuition and Program Design Features: Impacts on First-Time College Enrollment
  • 11 Community College Promise Programs and Local Impact: Aggregate Effects of College Attainment in Three Promise Communities
• Part 3 What Forces Contribute to the Establishment of a Promise Program?
  • 12 A Promising Trend? An Event History Analysis of Factors Associated With Establishing Single-Institution College Promise Programs
• Part 4 Where Do We Go From Here?
  • 13 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS How Our Findings Bear on Future Policy, Practice, and Research
• About the Contributors