Rethinking Student Aid

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    Fulfilling the Commitment: Video Overview

    Watch the video on progress with Rethinking Student Aid.
  • Simplifying State Aid Processes

    Lumina Foundation for Education supports work to help states simplify the financial aid application process
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  • The Unfinished Student Aid Agenda

    Policymakers and educators define the unfinished agenda for improving federal student aid.
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  • New Innovations Blog from Rethinking Student Aid Chairs

    Rethinking Student Aid Co-Chairs Sandy Baum and Mike McPherson launch a new blog at The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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Why We're Helping

Financial barriers prevent many qualified low- and moderate-income high school graduates from enrolling in four-year colleges. And for those who do enroll, their degree completion rates are low compared to their more affluent peers. We need a more effective financial aid system to increase college access and completion.

The Rethinking Student Aid study group of policy experts, academic researchers and higher education professionals spent two years studying and discussing the current system and ways to make it more effective for students. Fulfilling the Commitment: Recommendations for Reforming Federal Student Aid, issued in September 2008, offers a path toward simplicity, predictability and clear focus on students who need financial assistance to achieve college success.

Our Progress

Established the Rethinking Student Aid study group of policy experts, academic researchers and higher education professionals.

Released in September 2008, Fulfilling the Commitment is the culmination of two years of analysis, offering a set of comprehensive principles for reforming the federal student aid system.

Collected statements of support for the study group’s recommendations

A series of student aid policy roundtables on campuses across the nation to consider financial aid issues and the study group’s recommendations.

“The Future of Student Financial Aid,” held at the Brown Center on Education Policy Event at Brookings, Washington, DC

March 2010 policy forum in Washington, DC

Research with students and parents to examine their experiences with and perceptions about the federal financial aid system.

Working with states to help them model the impact of determining eligibility for state-funded, need-based grants using less financial data.

Statements of Support

“The College Board study group has provided a great service to the higher education community. Most of us have tried to improve the impossibly complex federal financial aid system by tinkering around the edges. Baum, McPherson and their colleagues, however, have taken the right approach — to rethink the entire approach to financial aid. The changes in American higher education no longer fit the paradigm of the 1960s that continues to drive policy and practice today. It’s time to move to a 21st-century system, and the study group has given us an exceptionally good first step to get us there.”


—David Longanecker, President, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE)

Read additional statements of support.

Recommendations

A summary of the Rethinking Student Aid study group’s recommendations:

  1. Simplify the Federal Student Aid System
  2. Improve the Federal Loan Process
  3. Develop a Federal Savings Program for Low-Income Families
  4. Reward States and Institutions That Support Student Success

Download Fulfilling the Commitment to read the full recommendations from the study group.

Study Group Members

Thomas Bailey
Director, Institute on Education and the Economy and Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University
Sandy Baum
Professor of Economics Emerita, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
Steven E. Brooks
Executive Director, North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority
Youlonda Copeland-Morgan
Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management and Director of Scholarships and Student Aid, Syracuse University
Georgette DeVeres
Associate Vice President/Admission and Financial Aid, Claremont McKenna College
Susan Dynarski
Associate Professor of Education and Public Policy, University of Michigan
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Director, Cornell Higher Education Research Institute (CHERI)
Carl F. Kaestle
Professor of Education, Brown University
Tom Kane
Professor of Education and Economics, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Bridget Terry Long
Professor of Education and Economics, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Michael S. McPherson
President, The Spencer Foundation
Shirley A. Ort
Associate Provost and Director of Scholarships and Student Aid, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Marshall (Mike) Smith
Education Program Director, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
William Troutt
President, Rhodes College
Jane Wellman
Executive Director, Delta Cost Project

Related Initiatives

Access, Admissions & Success – Education and the American Future
Increasing the number of Americans who graduate from college
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Trends in Higher Education
College pricing and student aid trend data for 2009
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The CollegeKeys Compact™
Expanding educational options for students from low-income backgrounds
More

Our Goal

To expand the educational opportunities available to young people and adults who face financial barriers to college enrollment and success, and to increase both the equity and the efficiency of the federal investment in higher education.

News & Events

Dec 31
The Unfinished Agenda for Improving Federal Student Aid
Rethinking Student Aid Policy Forum
More
Mar 18
Rethinking Student Aid: Progress to Date
The student aid policy community convened in the Capitol to revisit the recommendations of the Rethinking Student Aid study group.
More
Dec 31
Simplifying State Aid Processes
Helping states understand the potential effects of a streamlined federal financial aid system
More
Jun 12
Northeastern University – Why Simple Doesn't Have to Be Hard
The Rethinking Student Aid study group held a series of cross-country public policy discussions in 2009
More
May 19
UNLV – Why Simple Doesn't Have to Be Hard
The Rethinking Student Aid study group held a series of cross-country public policy discussions in 2009
More
Mar 09
CSU East Bay – Why Simple Doesn't Have to Be Hard
The Rethinking Student Aid study group held a series of cross-country public policy discussions in 2009
More

Related Links

Revisiting 'Rethinking Student Aid' with Study Group Co-Chairs Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson
College Board Research — Tuition Discounting: Not Just a Not Just a Private College Practice
Forum: Reformers Urged To Continue Advocacy for Student Aid Overhaul
The Future of Student Financial Aid - Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings

Publications

Rethinking Student Aid Project Summary
Download
Summary of Principles and Recommendations for Reforming Federal Student Aid
Download
Fulfilling the Commitment: Recommendations for Reforming Federal Student Aid
Download
Fulfilling the Commitment: Recommendations for Reforming Federal Student Aid in Brief
Download
More Publications

Press Releases

Rethinking Student Aid Report Creates Policy Path to Simplify Student Aid
College Board Brief Highlights Patterns in Student Debt

Collaborators

Lumina Foundation for Education
Spencer Foundation
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

“Improving performance in higher education is critical to our country’s future. We can’t do that work without a high-functioning system of federal student aid."
Jane Wellman
Executive Director, Delta Cost Project
Rethinking Student Aid

Contact Us

The College Board Advocacy & Policy Center
45 Columbus Avenue
New York, NY 10023

Sandy Baum, Independent Policy Analyst for The College Board
Kathie Little, Senior Advisor, Student Aid Policy, The College Board
Anne Sturtevant, Director, Enrollment Services and Access, The College Board