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Some Cities Are Promising Free College to High School Students. Does It Work?
2/21/14 | The New Republic
Behind the Headline
The Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship
Winter 2014 | Education Next
“If a college degree is becoming as essential as a high school diploma was a generation ago, why not make college free?” asks Nora Caplan-Bricker in the New Republic. In her article, she looks at research on the impact of the Kalamazoo Promise experiment, in which students attending public schools in Kalamazoo, Michigan can access funds from private donors to pay for all or most of the tuition at any of Michigan’s public universities or community colleges.
The prospect of a college education seemed to inspire students to show up, sit through class, and behave, Caplan-Bricker writes, and also boosted GPAs for African-American students.
The study on which the article is based appears in the new issue of Education Next.
-Education Next
