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

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.