Letter to the Hon. Betsy DeVos, Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Education - Support Access to Dual Enrollment for Low and Middle Income Students

Letter

Dear Secretary DeVos:

We write to you today regarding our interest in and commitment to the U.S. Department of Education's ongoing institution-based experiment to provide access to Pell Grants for students participating in dual enrollment programs. In addition, we write to request that the Department continue this experiment and determine an appropriate mechanism for evaluating this important project.

Under the Department's dual enrollment experimental site, 43 diverse programs run by approved institutions of higher education in 23 states have been selected to allow up to 10,000 low-income high school students to access their Pell Grants. Access to federal financial aid under the experiment is designed to offset the costs of tuition, fees, and books for dual enrollment programs that provide students with the opportunity to earn a minimum of twelve college credits on a pathway towards a degree or credential, as well as the support services necessary to ensure their success. Outside the experiment, secondary students who would otherwise meet the eligibility requirements for a Pell Grant find cost to be a barrier to taking early college or dual enrollment courses. We request that the Department assess whether the participating institutions are expected to meet the Department's goal of 10,000 participating students and consider initiating another round of applications for additional institutions to join the experiment starting in the 2017-18 school year.

Dual enrollment and early college high schools are effective tools for improving college access, affordability, and completion, particularly for low-income and middle class students. Their strong results in terms of college enrollment and completion have been validated by numerous rigorous research studies. This experiment is both important and timely because it provides an opportunity to assess the return on investment of providing Pell Grants to younger students enrolled in college-level courses. There are numerous questions that research on this experiment can provide to inform legislative efforts to reduce college costs and improve outcomes.

It is important that the Department move swiftly to establish an evaluation mechanism for the experiment. As we understand it, there is currently no formal evaluation plan in place, nor has the Department agreed to share data with external evaluators. The participating institutions stand ready to furnish the data for an evaluation, as required by their participation agreements. We request that the Department move forward with setting up a rigorous evaluation process so we may learn valuable lessons about the experiment's impact on institutions, financial aid systems, and student participation and success.

We appreciate your consideration of this request.