Dynarski Susan, Scott-Clayton Judith
Future Child. 2013 Spring;23(1):67-91. doi: 10.1353/foc.2013.0002.
In the nearly fifty years since the adoption of the Higher Education Act of 1965, financial aid programs have grown in scale, expanded in scope, and multiplied in form. As a result, financial aid has become the norm among college enrollees. Aid now flows not only to traditional college students but also to part-time students, older students, and students who never graduated from high school. Today aid is available not only to low-income students but also to middle- and even high-income families, in the form of grants, subsidized loans, and tax credits. The increasing size and complexity of the nation's student aid system has generated questions about effectiveness, heightened confusion among students and parents, and raised concerns about how program rules may interact. In this article, Susan Dynarski and Judith Scott-Clayton review what is known, and just as important, what is not known, about how well various student aid programs work. The evidence, the authors write, clearly shows that lowering costs can improve college access and completion. But this general rule is not without exception. First, they note, the complexity of program eligibility and delivery appears to moderate the impact of aid on college enrollment and persistence after enrollment. Second, for students who have already decided to enroll, grants that tie financial aid to academic achievement appear to boost college outcomes such as persistence more than do grants with no strings attached. Third, compared with grant aid, relatively little rigorous research has been conducted on the effectiveness of student loans. The paucity of evidence on student loans is particularly problematic both because they represent a large share of student aid overall and because their low cost (relative to grant aid) makes them an attractive option for policy makers. Future research is likely to focus on several issues: the importance of program design and delivery, whether there are unanticipated interactions between programs, and to what extent program effects vary across different types of students. The results of this evidence will be critical, the authors say, as politicians look for ways to control spending.
自1965年《高等教育法》通过后的近五十年里，财政援助项目在规模上不断扩大，范围上不断拓展，形式上不断增多。因此，财政援助已成为大学生中的常态。如今，援助不仅流向传统大学生，也流向非全日制学生、大龄学生以及从未高中毕业的学生。现在，援助不仅提供给低收入学生，也以助学金、贴息贷款和税收抵免的形式提供给中等收入甚至高收入家庭。美国学生资助体系规模日益增大且愈发复杂，引发了关于其有效性的问题，加剧了学生和家长们的困惑，并引发了人们对项目规则可能如何相互作用的担忧。在本文中，苏珊·戴纳斯基和朱迪思·斯科特 - 克莱顿回顾了关于各类学生资助项目运作情况已知的内容，同样重要的是，也回顾了未知的内容。作者写道，证据清楚地表明，降低成本可以提高大学入学率和毕业率。但这条一般规则也有例外。首先，他们指出，项目资格和发放的复杂性似乎会缓和援助对大学入学率及入学后持续性的影响。其次，对于已经决定入学的学生来说，将财政援助与学业成绩挂钩的助学金似乎比无附加条件的助学金更能提高诸如持续性等大学学业成果。第三，与助学金相比，针对学生贷款有效性的严格研究相对较少。关于学生贷款的证据匮乏尤其成问题，这既是因为它们在总体学生资助中占很大比例，也因为其低成本（相对于助学金）使其成为政策制定者的一个有吸引力的选择。未来的研究可能会聚焦于几个问题：项目设计和发放的重要性、项目之间是否存在意外的相互作用，以及项目效果在不同类型学生中差异的程度。作者表示，随着政治家们寻求控制开支的方法，这些证据的结果将至关重要。
