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News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 12, 2002

New report shows Indiana financial aid program helps low-income students attend college

Pairing financial aid and academic preparation key to program's success.

Indianapolis - Low-income students face two significant obstacles to college access — insufficient financial aid and inadequate academic preparation. According to a report released today by Lumina Foundation for Education, the Twenty-first Century Scholars Program, Indiana's state financial assistance initiative, helps low-income Indiana residents overcome those obstacles.

The report — Meeting the Access Challenge: Indiana's Twenty-first Century Scholars Program — notes that students who participated as Twenty-first Century Scholars were significantly more likely than non-Scholars to enroll in college. Of the 2,202 Scholars in the study sample, 1,752 — nearly 80 percent — enrolled in an Indiana college or university within one year of high school graduation. The evidence also suggests that student aspirations, student middle-school grades, the presence of parents who attended college and residence in a town or suburb all are positively related to student enrollment in public four-year colleges and Indiana independent colleges. African-American and other minority students were more likely to enroll in public two-year colleges than white students. Students from urban and rural locales were also more likely to enroll in two-year colleges than students from suburbs or towns.

"This research-based evaluation of the Twenty-first Century Scholars Program shows that states can improve college access for low-income populations by pursuing a two-pronged public policy strategy - one that promotes a college-preparatory curriculum and guarantees adequate financial aid," said Edward St. John, lead researcher on this report, professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Indiana University Bloomington and director of the Indiana Education Policy Center.

The Indiana Education Policy Center was awarded a Lumina FoundationSM research grant to evaluate the effectiveness of the Twenty-first Century Scholars Program in promoting college access. The research model compared students who enrolled in college with a reference group that did not enroll. The model controlled for several factors widely documented to affect enrollment patterns, including race, geographic locale and grade point average.

The Twenty-first Century Scholars Program began in 1990. The program essentially establishes a contract between the State of Indiana and low-income, middle school students, who promise to meet certain academic and behavioral standards while taking the steps necessary to prepare for college. The State of Indiana, in turn, promises to provide scholarships sufficient to cover in-state tuition at an Indiana public college or university or its equivalent at an Indiana private college. The study showed that students who completed their end of the contract were more likely to enroll in college. The principal eligibility requirement for Twenty-first Century Scholars is that each student must qualify for the federal Free and Reduced Lunch program in the eighth grade.

State government higher education leaders from across the country are visiting Indianapolis today to learn more about the program. This event, titled "Twenty-first Century Scholars: Indiana's Best Practices for Student Financial Aid," is sponsored by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, with support from Lumina Foundation.

"Indiana can be proud of this commitment to the Twenty-first Century Scholars Program," said Martha D. Lamkin, president and CEO of Lumina Foundation. "Postsecondary education remains one of the most beneficial investments that individuals can make in themselves and that society can make in its people. We hope that as other states consider issues of affordability, they can benefit from the Twenty-first Century Scholars success story."

A complete copy of the report is available on Lumina Foundation's Web site (www.luminafoundation.org) among its New Agenda Series publications. Printed copies of the report are also available. To obtain a free copy, please send an e-mail request to pgriffin@luminafoundation.org.

Note to reporters: For more information on NGA's Best Practices event, please contact John Blacksten at NGA: 202-624-7787 or jblacksten@nga.org]

Lumina Foundation for Education, a private, independent foundation, strives to help people achieve their potential by expanding access and success in education beyond high school. Through research, grants for innovative programs and communication initiatives, Lumina Foundation addresses issues surrounding financial access and educational retention and degree or certificate attainment — particularly among underserved student groups, including adult learners. The Foundation bases its mission on the belief that postsecondary education remains one of the most beneficial investments that individuals can make in themselves and that society can make in its people. For more details on the Foundation, visit its Web site at www.luminafoundation.org.

For more information, contact Sara Murray-Plumer, director of communications at (317) 951-5493 or splumer@luminafoundation.org.