Promises to Keep: A Qualitative Analysis of the First Year of Oregon Promise
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Date
2017-06-13
Authors
Gulbrandsen, Vé
O’Donnell Davidson, Danaan
Scott, Brett
Smith, Jennifer
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Abstract
Oregon Promise seeks to help newly graduated high school students and recent GED recipients
pursue higher education by covering up to the average tuition cost of a community college in the
state of Oregon. The grant was approved by the Oregon State Legislature in 2015 and first became
available to students in Fall 2016. The grant is expected to have served upwards of 6,700 students in
the first year with a minimum of $1,000 and a maximum of $3,397 being awarded to each student
who qualified for the grant (minus a $50 co-pay per term).1 Oregon Promise is administered by
Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC).
This analysis explores the role that Oregon Promise has played in the lives of the first cohort of
students, advisors and administrators to utilize the program. Since its conception, this study has
been guided by two main research questions: 1) did Oregon Promise expand enrollment, especially
for specific demographics, among students who would have otherwise not gone to college; and 2)
how have outreach, messaging, and specific supporting programs, impacted student experiences? In
an attempt to answer these questions, our study relied on a combination of focus groups and
interviews (both in person and over the phone) with Oregon Promise recipients as well as
administrators and advisors from various community colleges throughout the state of Oregon.
Additionally, this study builds on the work of Education Northwest’s 2016 study Fulfilling the Promise?: Early Findings on Oregon’s New College Grant Program.
Description
Examining Committee: Benjamin Clark and Bethany Steiner
Keywords
Oregon Promise, Higher education, Student success, College financing