Our Work - Current Projects

  • The Project on Student Debt

    The Project on Student Debt

    The Project on Student Debt works to increase public understanding of rising student debt and the implications for our families, economy, and society. Through research, policy development, and advocacy, the Project’s goal is to identify cost-effective solutions that expand educational opportunity, protect family financial security, and advance economic competitiveness

  • Keeping California's Promise

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    California’s Master Plan for higher education, adopted in 1960, guarantees a place in college for every state resident who can benefit. In the face of today’s challenges, the state needs to find new ways to keep that promise. The Institute is starting this work with a focus on the role of financial aid in serving the 2.5 million students at California’s community colleges.

  • Simplifying the FAFSA

    FAFSA

    The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a lengthy and intimidating form that is widely considered more of a barrier to college access than a gateway. The Institute is developing a way, with the applicant's simple persmission, to answer the income questions on the FAFSA with information the government already has. This option would make application for federal aid a much simpler, more accurate process.

  • College InSight

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    College InSight is a unique new web site for higher education data and research. The site is a valuable resource for anyone interested in college affordability, student debt, economic and racial diversity, student success, and other important issues in higher education.

Our Work - Past Projects

 

  • Difficult Dialogues Initiative

    Difficult Dialogues

    The Difficult Dialogues Initiative was a program designed to promote academic freedom and religious, cultural, and political pluralism on college and university campuses in the United States. Supported by the Ford Foundation, 43 institutions are implementing projects that address a wide range of topics. Through the Assessment and Evaluation Development Team (AEDT), the Institute has worked with the Difficult Dialogues Initiative providing technical assistance and support in the areas of assessment and evaluation to grantee institutions. 

  • College Access Marketing

    College Access Marketing

    Working for the Pathways to College Network, the Institute developed a web site to assist agencies and organizations that want to use marketing techniques to help increase college participation. The site allows college access professionals the ability to share effective strategies and materials, avoid common mistakes, and find creative ideas.

  • Student Loan Watch

    Student Loan Watch

    Early on, the Institute studied ways to make the federal student loan programs more cost-efficient, freeing up funds to help more families afford college. That work, previously known as Student Loan Watch, is now part of Higher Ed Watch, a project of the New America Foundation’s Education Policy Program.


Featured Work

 

Cal Grants

Strengthening Cal Grants to Better Serve Today's Students

TICAS and more than a dozen other student, civil rights, business, and college access organizations have come together to release a new analysis of how Cal Grants could better serve low-income college students.


RADD

Aligning the Means and the Ends

This white paper calls for major changes to federal student aid, including Pell Grants, student loans, and tax benefits, with the goals of increasing college affordability and completion.

SDR2010

Student Debt and the Class of 2011

Two-thirds of college seniors who graduated in 2011 had student loan debt, with an average of $26,600 per borrower. Meanwhile, unemployment for young college graduates remained high at 8.8 percent in 2011.

Adding It All Up 2012: Are College Net Price Calculators Easy to Find, Use, and Compare?

This report examines the state of net price calculators nearly a year after almost all U.S. colleges were required to post them on their websites. Our in-depth look at 50 randomly selected colleges' calculators found that many are difficult for prospective college students and their families to find, use, and compare.  

 

MLWMaking Loans Work: How Community Colleges Support Responsible Student Borrowing

Our report takes a closer look at how some forward-thinking community colleges in California are promoting responsible use of federal student loans - ideas that can be adopted by colleges across the country.

 

poll

Poll: Young Adults Say Higher Education is More Important but Less Affordable

A national bi-partisan survey of adults ages 18-34 reveals that young adults today believe a college education is more important than it was for their parents' generation, that it has become less affordable in the last five years, and that students are leaving school with too much debt.

Critical Choices

Our report looks at promising and problematic practices of financial aid offices when students apply for private student loans.