Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

King, Stephanie B.

Committee Member

Stumpf, Arthur D.

Committee Member

Davis, James E.

Committee Member

Wiseman, William M.

Date of Degree

5-6-2017

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Community College Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Educational Leadership

Abstract

Pell Grant funding is without question foundational to the American community college mission – providing access to higher education to over 9 million students. Pell Grants are particularly important in the 2-year sector, where such a large number of students are from low-income socioeconomic areas. In December 2011, then-President Obama signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act (2012) which significantly changed the Pell Grant program for college students by making 3 major changes to the eligibility criteria for Pell Grants. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of these 3 changes at the national, state, and local level to estimate the impact felt by colleges and students across the United States. This quantative study utilized data from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Data System (IPEDS) as well as from a mid-sized urban college located in the state of Minnesota. Both regression analysis and seasonal time decomposition techniques were conducted to determine the estimated number and amount of Pell Grant award post Act compared to actual. The findings of this study indicated a significant correlation between the model and the output when used with national and local data. Not all of the state models produced significant results.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/16604

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