Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Department of Education’s latest report analyzes progress among the nation’s public and private nonprofit colleges in opening their doors to low-income, Pell-eligible students, and ensuring they succeed once they arrive on campus.
• The report celebrates the work of public and private, nonselective and selective colleges enrolling high numbers of Pell Grant recipients and graduating them at nearly the same rates as their peers from higher-income families, including Cal State University-Stanislaus, CUNY Bernard M. Baruch College, Florida International University, Georgia State, Agness Scott College, Blue Mountain College, Howard University, Amherst College, Columbia, USC, and Vassar.
• While funding cuts have led to a decline in the portion of low-income students on some campuses as colleges look for students who can pay tuition, other institutions, including the nation’s HBCUs and Minority Serving Institutions, have made a commitment to serving economically disadvantaged students and the report recognizes College of Mount Saint Vincent, Morehouse College, North Carolina A&T, Spelman, and The University of Illinois at Chicago for their innovative and evidence-based strategies to help these students.

Dive Insight:

The report further recognizes Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky for statewide efforts to improve access and success. In keeping with the Obama administration’s criticism of outcomes across the for-profit sector, the report also criticizes the performance of for-profits in general, pointing to a six-year graduation rate among Pell Grant recipients of less than 16%, compared to about 50% at public four-year colleges and 55% at private nonprofits.

It does not let nonprofits off the hook, however, adding that there is room for improvement among institutions with large attainment gaps between Pell Grant recipients and their peers as well as among those that continue to enroll especially low portions of Pell Grant recipients overall. The report says institutions with high access to low-income students and high success rates among them are still the exception rather than the rule, something that has to change.