The Education Resources Institute

POLICY AND RESEARCH STUDIES

TERI plays a national leadership role in identifying and developing public policy solutions concerning the quality of education and opportunities for access to education. TERI has sponsored or coauthored the policy studies listed below.

Publications are available in PDF format. To view or download, click the hyperlinked titles below.

Older studies on similar and additional subjects can be found in our Archive Section.

Promise Lost: College-Qualified Students Who Don’t Enroll in College (670KB - pdf) - Despite being academically qualified, many of the nation’s high school students face influential misconceptions and barriers that deter them from pursuing a college education. Some challenges deterring college-qualified students from enrolling may include mixed messages about academic preparation, financial concerns, poor understanding of admission and financial aid application processes, and limited community encouragement. These reasons are especially true for high-achieving students from disadvantaged populations, such as minorities and those with low incomes, who already face additional adversities while on their educational path.”

A New Boston Higher Education Partnership report -- From College Access to College Success: College Preparation and Persistence of Boston Public School Graduates Despite recent school improvements and increased university outreach initiatives to improve college readiness, Boston Public School graduates often struggle to meet the academic requirements and expectations of postsecondary education.

"National leaders increasingly express concern about the unacceptably high number of students, especially those from low-income families who start college but never complete degrees," said Dr. Ann Coles, TERI's Senior Vice President for National College Access Programs. "Gathering data at the local level helps us understand much better the factors that place students at risk for dropping out and the policies, programs and practices that work to support their success."

Pathways to College Report - Early Commitment Financial Aid Programs: Promises, Practices, and Policies. - Too often, low-income students don’t prepare for college in high school because they believe they’ll never be able to afford it. This report examines innovative programs that use early commitments of financial aid -- a promise of aid given in middle or early high school that is contingent on students completing a rigorous college-prep curriculum -- to open doors for low-income students.

How the design, operations and marketing of a financial aid program can impact college enrollment - This research report looks at how the design, operations and marketing of a financial aid program can impact college enrollment.

College Knowledge (108KB - pdf) - Addressing Information Barriers to College - Considerable research has been conducted on the barriers to higher education access and success faced by low-income students and those who are the first generation in their families to attend college. This paper discusses much of that research and summarizes the main findings.

A Shared Agenda (973KB - pdf) - A milestone report from the Pathways to College Network, A Shared Agenda is the culmination of three years of collaborative research into what works to improve college access and success for underserved students. It is a call to action to leaders in all sectors to play their role in making college access a reality for all students.

A Guide to Establishing Community-Based College Access Centers (1MB - pdf) - TERI, with support from the Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, embarked on a college access center replication project for the purpose of promoting college going among low-income students and those who are the first generation in their families to attend college. The project involves establishing community-based college access centers modeled after the highly successful Higher Education Information Center (HEIC) in Boston, Massachusetts.

Private Loan Study (563KB - pdf) - A study from Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), TERI, and National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA). This report focuses on better understanding private loans, who receives these loans, and why. Understanding who receives private loans and their reasons for borrowing these loans is critical for future policymaking at the government, institutional, consumer, and student loan guarantor/lender levels.