The Benefits of Testing a Program in Different States

A group of public universities is testing how different versions of “completion grants” can help students who are close to graduating, but at risk because of modest financial hardships.

Some colleges have found that a relatively small amount of money — even a few hundred dollars — can be the difference between graduating and dropping out. The 11 institutions in the University Innovation Alliance, a coalition of public research universities working to spread novel approaches for furthering student success, each operate in a different state, and are putting their own spins on the programs. The project will shed light on how these variables affect the success of completion grants, says Jessica Williams, the alliance fellow at Georgia State University. That will help leaders at other colleges gauge how a version of the program might work on their campuses.

Here are a few key ways in which the completion grant programs vary:

• Scale: By design, completion grants help students who carry a small financial balance. That problem comes up more often at some alliance members than others, Williams says. Purdue University, for instance, has relatively large populations of out-of-state and residential students. That means some students’ outstanding balances are too large for a completion grant to cover. Other campuses, like Georgia State — where many students commute — have larger pools of students who qualify. And some members just have larger enrollments in general, she adds.
• Requirements: Some alliance members encourage grant recipients to meet with an adviser to plan their path to graduation. Others require it. At Iowa State University, for instance, students must meet with a financial-literacy specialist. Depending on their GPA, some are also required to check in with the university’s academic-success center.
• Timing: Each alliance member is beholden to the policies of its own state. Georgia State, for instance, bases the timing of its grants on a state requirement that stipulates that students be dropped if they carry a balance after the first week of classes. That means the university has to get the money to students quickly for it to be effective.

Beckie Supiano writes about teaching, learning, and the human interactions that shape them. Follow her on Twitter @becksup, or drop her a line at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.