The Oklahoma's Promise Program: A National Model to Promote College Persistence

Abstract

Using a multi-method approach involving fixed effects and logistic regressions, this study examined the effect of the Oklahoma's Promise Program on student persistence in relation to the Pell and Stafford federal programs and according to socio-economic characteristics and class level. The Oklahoma's Promise is a hybrid state program that pays in-state college tuition for students that have completed a series of academic and disciplinary benchmarks in high school and demonstrated financial need. Results indicate that the Promise program alone or in combination with Pell grants and Stafford loans is a predictor of persistence; however, this effect varies by income and race/ethnicity. Both the federal and state governments spend millions of dollars a year in financial aid policies for postsecondary education as one of the primary tools to promote postsecondary achievement. These policies vary from strictly merit-based, to need-based, to hybrid programs that combine both merit and need-based criteria (Perna & Titus, 2004). In 1991, the state of Oklahoma implemented an innovative hybrid financial aid program titled the Oklahoma's Promise Program ("Promise grant"), which unlike many of its kind requires students to meet certain academic and disciplinary benchmarks in high school, including a pre-college curriculum.

Leveraging insights from behavioral science and administrative burden in free college program design: A typology

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“…Whilst there have been attempts to assess the impact of financial support policies internationally (e.g. Boatman & Long, 2016;Mendoza & Mendez, 2012;Reed & Hurd, 2016), the highly context-specific nature of the student finance system and the constant changes within individual national regimes provide significant challenges to undertaking a universal analysis of their effectiveness.…”