FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 29, 2020
CONTACT: Patricia Lamiell, lamiell@tc.columbia.edu, 212-678-3979
Researchers at Teachers College, Columbia University have won two prestigious grants totaling nearly $6.3 million from the federal Institute of Education Sciences (IES). One will fund the first-ever, comprehensive study of the federal Work-Study program, and the other will support interdisciplinary doctoral training for selected Ph.D. students pursuing careers in applied research in post-secondary education. The grants were submitted and received through the College’s Community College Research Center.
IES is the independent, nonpartisan statistics, research and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education.
Created in 1964 as part of the Economic Opportunity Act, the Federal Work-Study program (FWS) is one of the nation’s oldest student aid programs -- yet it has never been rigorously evaluated. The program, which provides about $1 billion annually to over half a million students each year, including one out of every 10 full-time undergraduates, pays low- and moderate-income undergraduate, graduate and professional students nationwide to work part-time while they are studying -- but to date it is unknown whether it improves academic and career outcomes. That, as Judith Scott-Clayton, Associate Professor of Economics & Education wrote in a 2017 article for The Brookings Institution, is one reason why FWS today has been far outstripped in size and impact by Pell Grants and federal student loans. “As award amounts have atrophied and tuition and fees have skyrocketed, today’s typical FWS award now covers only 16 percent of today’s average public tuition and fees,” Scott-Clayton wrote.
Now, backed by a $2.8 million IES grant, a team led by Scott-Clayton and co-principal investigators Thomas Brock, Director of the Community College Research Center; and Adela Soliz, Assistant Professor of Higher Education and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, will assess the short- and long-term outcomes of the Work-Study program, including whether students achieve higher grade-point averages while holding work-study jobs, and whether they are more likely to re-enroll in college the following year, as well as their rates of college completion, kinds of employment and salaries. Nongovernmental sources will provide an additional $509,000 to support the effort.
A separate $3.5 million IES training grant will support interdisciplinary doctoral training for selected Ph.D. students pursuing careers in applied research in post-secondary education. The research grant will fund three cohorts of five doctoral students each, covering their tuition and fees, and providing a living stipend and money to attend research conferences. The College will provide an additional $1.5 million in funding to the student recipients.
“The predoctoral research training grants are very competitive, and TC has never received one before,” said Brock, who is Principal Investigator on the grant with co-PIs Aaron Pallas, Arthur I. Gates Professor of Sociology & Education, and Sarah Cohodes, Associate Professor of Economics & Education. “We’re very pleased to be able to provide the eventual student recipients with this level of assistance, which is greater and more comprehensive than what TC has been able to provide in the past.”
For more information, see Teachers College Receives $6.3 Million in Two Federal Grants, or contact Patricia Lamiell at Teachers College, lamiell@tc.columbia.edu, 973-449-7086.