Social Mobility Or Social Stratification? Exploring The Relationship Between Public Policy Intervention And Outcomes At Minority Serving Institutions
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minority serving institutions
public policy
social mobility
Educational Sociology
Education Policy
Higher Education Administration
Higher Education and Teaching
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Abstract
Minority serving institutions (MSIs) are becoming an increasingly prominent part of U.S. postsecondary education and perform a critical role in educating and graduating students of color. These institutions receive discretionary and mandatory funding via the Higher Education Act to better serve their focal student populations. While a growing corpus of research illuminates the strengths of MSIs, few studies have focused on the possible relationship between MSI federal grants and student outcomes. This study incorporates institution-level Department of Education NCES data and Equality of Opportunity Project data with a regression discontinuity design to estimate the impact of Title III and Title V grants on college completion measures as well as upward social mobility measures. The results from this study indicate a positive relationship between institutions receiving MSI grant funding and institutional outcome metrics net of other variables. The relationship is particularly strong amongst Latino/a students graduating from HSIs. Implications for policy and practice as well as directions for future research are also discussed.