Resource

Improve college affordability for low-income students, students of color, and other vulnerable populations

  • Strengthen the Pell Grant program by restoring annual inflation adjustments and increasing maximum awards
  • Provide postsecondary education programs to individuals who are incarcerated and/or impacted by the criminal justice system
  • Expand opportunities for Dreamers to pursue a higher education

Align federal investments with campus performance on equitable access and completion

  • Maintain and strengthen accountability provisions currently in place, including the 90/10 rule and gainful employment regulation — which aim to cap federal funding of for-profit colleges and hold career training programs accountable for providing labor market return on investments among graduates
  • In addition to maintaining and strengthening the accountability provisions currently in place, create pressure and support for the entire higher education system to improve for historically underserved students (i.e., low-income students and students of color) by doing the following:
    • Establish minimum standards for institutions on enrolling historically underserved students and for improving student performance and outcomes on measures such as retention, transfer, graduation, and job placement;
    • Sustain and increase investments in low-resourced institutions to support the implementation of evidence-based strategies that improve completion, especially for low-income students and students of color;
    • Reward institutions for making continual growth toward reaching ambitious access and success goals within a reasonable time; and
    • Enforce meaningful consequences for institutions that continue to underperform after getting needed resources, time, and support to reach minimum enrollment and performance standards.
  • Improve higher education data systems to provide reliable, consistent and useable information needed to construct effective accountability and oversight systems by doing the following:
    • Overturn the ban on creating a student unit record system;
    • Create a student level data network that disaggregates data by race and income;
    • Ensure privacy and security for sensitive student information such as citizenship status, discipline records, and criminal history; and
    • Improve IPEDS so that data on critical measures of student success are disaggregated by race and income.

Support innovation and the scaling of evidence-based practices for improving completion

  • Fund efforts to help campuses identify, implement, scale up, and evaluate programs that improve completion for the students who are most at risk of dropping out, including low-income students and students of color
  • Target these funds to the institutions that serve high proportions of historically underserved students

Ensure that institutions of higher education protect the safety and civil rights of all students