The promise of a college scholarship transforms a district

Abstract

Promise programs are place-based scholarships, generally tied to a city or school district, offering near-universal access to all living in the “place.” While Promise programs share some characteristics with other scholarship programs, they’re unique because they seek to change communities and schools. Underlying such promise programs is the belief that having access to a guaranteed college scholarship will encourage students to remain in schools, encourage families to remain in a community, and change how educators work with students. This article focuses on the El Dorado Promise in El Dorado, Ark., which began in 2007. From analyzing student data and interviewing educators, the authors learned that the Promise did lead to several changes in the district: enrollment increased; student learning improved; discussions of college permeated the district from kindergarten onward; expectations for all students rose; and enrollment in advanced coursework increased for all students.

A Promise Kept? The Impact of the El Dorado Promise Scholarship on Student Achievement

“…The hypothesized mechanism driving the positive relationship between the Promise and improved student performance on math end-of-year assessments is a cultural shift within EDSD schools that created a college-going culture, emphasized high expectations for all students, and encouraged students to engage more deeply with coursework. Qualitative work in El Dorado supports this hypothesis, with teachers and school leaders saying they doubled down on their mission to prepare all students for college, and challenged themselves and each other to hold high expectations for all students after the Promise was announced (Ritter & Ash, 2016). Furthermore, student mindsets, along with parental interest, could have also shifted after learning of the Promise.…”

“…In this section, we examine whether the Promise had differential impacts on math achievement across student subgroups. Interviews with teachers and school leaders revealed that El Dorado educators redoubled their efforts to ensure that they held high expectations for all students, with many EDSD personnel explicitly stating they raised their expectations for disadvantaged students, namely students receiving FRL and Black students, now that all students had the means to attend college (Ritter & Ash, 2016). Given this, it could be that the Promise would have a more pronounced effect on higher-achieving students from underserved populations than on their more advantaged peers who were already expected to attend college before the Promise was announced, as discussed above.…”

“…Interviews from earlier qualitative work in El Dorado (Ritter & Ash, 2016) found evidence of a genuine change in the culture of the district after the Promise was announced. After January of 2007, discussions of college permeated the entire district from kindergarten to 12th grade, teachers began to hold all students to higher expectations because all students had the financial opportunity to go on to college, and enrollment in advanced coursework increased (Ritter & Ash, 2016).…”

“…Interviews from earlier qualitative work in El Dorado (Ritter & Ash, 2016) found evidence of a genuine change in the culture of the district after the Promise was announced. After January of 2007, discussions of college permeated the entire district from kindergarten to 12th grade, teachers began to hold all students to higher expectations because all students had the financial opportunity to go on to college, and enrollment in advanced coursework increased (Ritter & Ash, 2016). Teacher expectations may be an important factor in determining student outcomes, including achievement (Jussim et al, 1994; Rubie-Davies, 2006); thus, an intervention that can change teachers’ expectations of students could have significant downstream effects on student achievement.…”

“…However, the backward path from the guarantee of free college tuition to improved achievement in school in earlier years is less clear. Nevertheless, Promise advocates, and El Dorado educators, do posit a connection between the program and achievement in elementary and middle school (Ritter & Ash, 2016), and understanding whether and to what extent this goal is achieved is important for researchers and policymakers alike. This hypothesized pathway is similar to that found by Destin (2017), who demonstrated that providing seventh and eighth grade students with information about need-based scholarships increased students’ intentions to attend college, desired grades, and expectations of engagement with schoolwork.…”