The Good, The Bad, and the Balanced: A Typology of State Merit-Aid Programs for Community College Students

IF 1.7 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Community College Review Pub Date : 2024-03-19 DOI:10.1177/00915521241238753

Xiaodan Hu, Frank Fernandez, Yuxi Qiu, Matt Capaldi

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Abstract

Objective/Research Question: States have increasingly used merit-based criteria to distribute scholarships and grants, and the dominant conversation on merit-aid programs centers on students attending 4-year colleges and universities. This study examines the characteristics of state-funded merit-aid programs for community college students and provides implications for policymaking to promote educational equity. Methods: With a newly collected dataset capturing a variety of program-level features of state-funded merit-aid policies between 2003 and 2021, we used latent class analysis to identify different types of merit-aid programs for community college students. We present a 3-class model based on model fit indices and practical interpretation of policy designs. Results: Findings indicate three classes of merit-aid programs that extended support to community college students: The Community College Marginalizing Programs ( n = 47), The Community College Targeted Programs ( n = 4), and The Balanced Programs ( n = 17). Conclusions/Contributions: Drawing on Mettler’s notion of the policyscape, we discuss the characteristics of the three types of merit-aid programs and provide implications for designing merit-aid programs to better support community college students and promote educational equity.

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好的、坏的、平衡的：针对社区学院学生的州立择优补助计划类型学

目标/研究问题：各州越来越多地采用择优标准来发放奖学金和助学金，而关于择优补助项目的主要讨论集中在四年制大学的学生身上。本研究探讨了针对社区学院学生的州资助择优补助项目的特点，并为促进教育公平的政策制定提供了启示。研究方法：我们利用新收集的数据集，捕捉了 2003 年至 2021 年间州政府资助的优秀补助政策在项目层面上的各种特征，并使用潜类分析法来识别针对社区大学学生的不同类型的优秀补助项目。我们根据模型拟合指数和政策设计的实际解释，提出了一个三类模型。结果：研究结果表明，有三类优秀补助计划为社区大学生提供了支持：社区学院边缘化计划（n = 47）、社区学院目标计划（n = 4）和平衡计划（n = 17）。结论/贡献：根据梅特勒的 "政策景观 "概念，我们讨论了三类绩优助学金计划的特点，并为设计绩优助学金计划以更好地支持社区学院学生和促进教育公平提供了启示。

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来源期刊

Community College Review EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-

CiteScore

2.40

自引率

7.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Community College Review (CCR) has led the nation for over 35 years in the publication of scholarly, peer-reviewed research and commentary on community colleges. CCR welcomes manuscripts dealing with all aspects of community college administration, education, and policy, both within the American higher education system as well as within the higher education systems of other countries that have similar tertiary institutions. All submitted manuscripts undergo a blind review. When manuscripts are not accepted for publication, we offer suggestions for how they might be revised. The ultimate intent is to further discourse about community colleges, their students, and the educators and administrators who work within these institutions.