“School was always interesting and easy for me, so there was no doubt I was going to college,” Alamo said, “but then I realized, ‘Oh, I might not have another chance to go to college if I do this.’ you have no money.”
Model from Michigan
College Promise programs offer scholarships to high school graduates that cover tuition and fees to institutions of higher education in the graduate’s home state. There are more than 400 programs in thirty-three states and Washington
According to a According to a 2016 study, these programs aim to reduce poverty and crime, increase employment and improve the overall economic development of the region.
However, despite the positive response to pledge programs, there is little research showing whether pledge programs actually reduce poverty. Further complicating the results, a crime rates vary because results depend on how programs are implemented. However, recent research shows that programs that offer training and other methods of financial support hold promise the biggest impact on graduation rates for low-income students.
Each Promise Scholarship has different eligibility requirements, including a residency requirement in a specific school district and a minimum grade point average. Pledge scholarships generally follow one of three disbursement structures: students receive “first dollar pledge scholarships” before other types of financial aid, “middle dollar scholarships” are applied after other grants or scholarships are awarded, and “last dollar scholarships” are completed. lack of tuition fees after applying all other forms of financial support.
Kalamazoo, Michigan, introduced the first pledge program in 2005. The Kalamazoo Promise it was funded by a group of anonymous donors and started by a former Kalamazoo school superintendent. The scholarship was open to all Kalamazoo public school graduates who have lived and been enrolled in their school district for at least four years.
Kalamazoo — for example New York, Chicago and several other cities have been historically influenced by “white flight” first experienced in the 1930s. Kalamazoo’s Promise model aimed to invigorate the city by motivating residents to stay in their school district and perhaps inspire others to move.
Kalamazoo, 61% from 2006 to 2021, students using the scholarship had free or reduced lunch status. During the same period, 82% of eligible Asian students, 66% of Latino students, and 63% of black students took advantage of the promised scholarships six months after graduation.
Researchers, politicians and even President Barack Obama the program was considered a success. The first kindergarten class to take advantage of the Kalamazoo Promise graduated from high school in 2019. Until then nearly 7,000 Kalamazoo students had benefited from the promise scholarship. Since 2006 approx 90% high school seniors have qualified for the promised scholarship, which could help finance attendance at 58 Michigan colleges and universities, and 80% actually took advantage of the scholarship.
Soon after the early success in Kalamazoo, other pledge programs were launched, often with similar missions to increase graduation rates and improve regions. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Denver, Colorado and throughout New England, Connecticut three pledge programs, including the New Haven pledge program, and like other similar programs across the country, each has additional eligibility requirements and different funding structures from public and private sources. Recently, publicly funded pledge programs in countries such as Oregon and Nevada have seen budget cuts, making scholarships dependent on available funds.
A response to the rising cost of college
While the popularity of pledge programs has increased, so has the cost of attending higher education institutions. Over the past twenty years, average tuition at private and public universities has nearly doubled, and in-state tuition has nearly tripled.
Rising costs have forced students to finance their education through loans. However, recent research shows that student loan debt disproportionately affects students of color, further widening the income gap between racial groups.
In 2021, President Biden, recognizing unequal access to degree-granting institutions, added all state free community college at his expense. However, there was a proposal rejected the bill, making financial aid programs like pledge scholarships more attractive to high school students, such as many who live in New England, where some of the most expensive colleges and universities are located.
No two programs are the same, and the lack of uniformity can often confuse students and families and affect the participation of students who need it most. Rachel Conway, researcher The New England Council on Higher Education decided to explore the New England Promise programs after working as a college access coach in Oregon, helping students learn how to finance a college education.
“Oregon Promise was created in 2015 as a free community college scholarship, and I’ve seen a lot of my students really excited about it and really drawn to it,” Conway said.
She said her students who chose to attend community colleges often did so to take advantage of the scholarships they were promised, regardless of whether the school was a good fit or offered as a preferred field of study.
“Many of my students already had a Pell Grant and an Oregon Opportunity Grant, which is an Oregon grant that largely covers tuition and fees at community colleges in the state,” Conway said, “so what they were actually getting from. Oregon’s promise at the time was maybe minimal .
Check results in New Haven
Conway admits she was skeptical about whether the New England Promise scholarships offered different results, but after surveying all nine of the Promise programs in New England, she said she was surprised to see that scholarship programs such as New Haven Promise strived to be much more than just a scholarship.
“New Haven Promise has been around since 2010, so they’re just deeply rooted in the community right now,” Conway said. “Some of their practices go beyond just making college more affordable.”
In accordance with Conway’s findings, New Haven Promise, the oldest pledge program in the region, is also one of the most equitable and has proven to have a more holistic approach, providing additional services such as tutoring, mentoring and alumni networking sessions, as well as internship opportunities for students.
Yale University funds the New Haven Promise Scholarship and other initiatives such as tutoring and mentoring are funded by donations. New Haven Promise is the only program in Connecticut that uses an “average dollar” format, allowing students to use scholarships after receiving financial aid, such as a Pell Grant, to fill any financial gaps or pay for non-tuition related expenses. .
New Haven Promise Scholars are 90% students of color and 70% are first-generation to attend college. The program has few but strict eligibility requirements, including a 3.0 cumulative grade point average, a 90% attendance rate throughout high school, and 40 hours of community service. The requirements alone narrow the pool of qualified students, but according to data collected by New Haven Promise, the results justify the requirements.
The 2022 donor briefing notes that in the first five years of the grant, the New Haven Public School graduation rate increased from 58% to 80%, and the district’s college enrollment rate increased from 56% to 64%. Since its inception, New Haven Promise has awarded scholarships to 2,300 students and distributed $25 million. In 2021, more than 600 students have earned bachelor’s degrees from colleges including UConn, Quinnipiac University and Yale.
“One of the things that makes New Haven Promise successful is our commitment to seeing our scholars through, through and back,” said Patricia Melton, president of New Haven Promise.
It’s something Melton uses regularly to emphasize the program’s mission to ensure students attend local colleges or universities and encourage them to return to their communities after college.
As a high school senior, Melton left her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio after earning a scholarship to attend a boarding school in New England. Over the years, Melton said, she has thought a lot about leaving behind all the connections she had in her community as a young person to get a better education.
“People say ‘you did it,’ but that’s the wrong way to think about it.” The beauty of pledge programs is that you don’t have to leave,” Melton said. “Colleges need to be partners, but they often drain talent from the community.”
Melton said New Haven Promise strives to inspire its students to stay in their communities by offering mentoring programs, community service opportunities and internships at local businesses.
“By helping them build a network in their community, we do it so they don’t have to make that choice to leave. There should be no compromise,” Melton said.
Yorgielissa Casanova, program manager at Promise K-12 in New Haven, said she doesn’t have to make that trade-off. This is one of the reasons she decided to join New Haven Promise after graduating from Albertus Magnus College as a New Haven Promise Scholar. Casanova said she also wants to offer students the same level of support she had as a scientist.
“I have a very unique experience as a recipient, and now I get to help develop the program,” Casanova said. “New Haven Promise has been one of the most stable and consistent things I’ve ever had.”
Justin Alamo can be similar. He also credits the promise of New Haven with inspiring him to become a high school teacher after graduating from UConn, completely debt-free next year.
“I’ll be honest, I’d probably be on a different career path if I had to pay off my student loans because I’d be so stressed about making money,” Alamo said. “But the promise of New Haven gave me the opportunity to get an education as a Puerto Rican male in a world where educational equity isn’t always top of mind.”
Kio Herrera is a reporter in New York. She is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she was a Toni Stabile Scholar in Investigative Journalism.
Prism is an independent and non-profit newsroom run by journalists of color. Our in-depth and thought-provoking journalism reflects the experiences of those most affected by injustice. We tell stories from the ground up to disrupt harmful narratives and inform movements for justice. Sign up for our newsletter to get our stories in your inbox and follow us Twitter, Facebookand Instagram.