Information about the cost-effectiveness of higher education is critical when resources are limited and demand for more people with high-quality postsecondary training is growing. Investing in Student Success (ISS), a pilot project funded by Walmart Foundation and Lumina Foundation for Education, has tested whether first-year programs designed to retain students are a cost-effective investment for colleges and universities.
The ISS pilot project produced the Cost-Return Calculator, a resource that ties program-level cost data to student outcomes in success programs. The goal in developing the Cost-Return Calculator was to document the relationship between higher retention rates characterizing the success of program participants and any associated additional revenue generated by colleges and universities vis a vis increased enrollments. Armed with this information, institutions will be better able to make more-informed, data-driven decisions about how to invest marginal dollars in ways that help students succeed. Colleges and universities could calculate revenues associated with retaining students and, potentially, measure costs associated with students dropping out. Given the importance of success in the first year to completing a postsecondary degree, estimating the costs of programs that promote student success is critical in advancing more students to a degree and increasing productivity.
Jobs for the Future and the Delta Project on Postsecondary Costs, Productivity and Accountability, recruited 13 colleges and universities with student success programs considered effective at serving freshman students, especially low-income, first-generation, at-risk students, for this one-year pilot program. The pilot colleges include public and private institutions with two- and four-year campuses. Programs selected for cost analyses featured a variety of first-year program models: learning communities, university college programs, summer bridge/gateway programs, first-year seminars and supplemental instruction.
For more details on ISS and the Cost-Return Calculator, please download:
Press release
Calculating Cost-Return report
Cost-Return Calculator
Learn more about productivity in postsecondary education and college costs, visit: www.deltacostproject.org
For additional information, please contact:
Jennifer Poulos
Senior Program Manager
Making Opportunity Affordable
617-728-4446
jpoulos@jff.org