• Integrating Higher Education Financial Aid and Financing Policy: Case Studies from the Changing Direction States
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    One of WICHE’s primary activities of the Changing Direction project (funded by Lumina Foundation for Education) was to provide direct technical assistance to states that were seriously considering higher education financing issues in new ways. WICHE chose 14 states for the project and worked closely with each for a two-year period to develop a more comprehensive state policymaking framework and process so that policies related to appropriations, tuition, and financial aid were better aligned, occurred in an environment of collaboration, and supported state goals for higher education. In an effort to chronicle the states’ progress and developments as well as share the lessons learned, this publication offers a compilation of case studies written about the Changing Direction technical assistance states.

    2008 ~ 89pp. ~ Pub #2A357 ~ Printed copies available ~ PDF ~ 980 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • Strategies for Improving Student Success in Postsecondary Education
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    State and federal policy need to provide greater incentives, both to students and to the institutions that serve them, to enhance the likelihood of student success. In this paper Art Hauptman adds substantially to the body of work that has been supported by Lumina Foundation for Education in WICHE’s Changing Direction project, which has focused on how states can intentionally change finance policies– appropriations, tuition, and financial aid– to expand access to success, particularly for the most at-risk young adults.

    2007 ~ 26pp. ~ Pub #2A361 ~ Printed copies available ~ PDF ~ 1.2 MB~ DOWNLOAD

  • Thinking Outside the Box: Policy Strategies for Readiness, Access, and Success
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    Too often, when one state engages in successful “outside-the-box” policymaking, other states simply adopt that solution wholesale – as if it were a one-size-fits-all “policy-in-a-box.” This publication describes a number of policy strategies – both inside-the-box and outside-the-box – and discusses how they address various possible policy purposes. Thinking Outside the Box provides a systematic discussion of policy alignment around readiness, access, and success and examines them in the light of four policy tools: finance, regulation, accountability, and governance. This latest publication is supported by Lumina Foundation for Education in WICHE’s Changing Direction project.

    2007 ~ 60pp. ~ Pub #2A362 ~ Printed copies available ~ PDF ~ 354 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • State Financial Aid: Policies to Enhance Articulation and Transfer
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    Articulation and transfer mechanisms have become important in moving students through postsecondary education, beginning with freshman year and continuing through graduation. This report is an examination of how state policies enhance student articulation and transfer and, ultimately, student success. This study was part of WICHE’s project Changing Direction: Integrating Higher Education Financial Aid and Financing Policy, which examined how to structure financial aid and financing policies and practices in order to maximize participation, access, and success for all students and to promote more informed decision making on financial aid and financing issues in higher education.

    2005 ~ 20pp. ~ Pub #8A25 ~ PDF ~ 1.4 MB~ DOWNLOAD

  • Linking Tuition and Financial Aid Policy: The Gubernatorial Perspective
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    This survey of governor’s education policy advisors was commissioned as part of Changing Direction and as a companion piece to a previously published survey, Linking Tuition and Financial Aid Policy: The State Legislative Perspective. These two publications collectively are designed to provide insight into the perspectives of key state policymakers, and this survey specifically is intended to contribute to the existing base of knowledge by examining the perceptions of governors and their advisors about critical decisions and their role in higher education financing policy. Exploring their viewpoint will hopefully lead to better, more informed decisions on these important issues.

    2004 ~ 22pp. ~ Pub #2A351 ~ PDF ~ 3.6 MB~ DOWNLOAD

  • What is 'Changing Direction'? A Project Overview
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    2004 ~ 6pp. ~ PDF ~ 650 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • Informing Public Policy: Financial Aid and Student Persistence

    This is one of a series of the Changing Direction documents produced to foster greater understanding of key issues related to establishing stronger alignment of financial aid and financing policies. The primary objective of this report is to shed light on the topic of institutionally and statefunded grants to students attending public higher education institutions. While there has been a fair amount of research conducted on state financial aid, much less is known about how institutional grants are used in public colleges and universities. This study uses data from a nationally representative survey of the U.S. Department of Education to analyze the characteristics of students receiving these grants and whether the awarding of these grants is related to persistence and degree attainment. A secondary objective is to familiarize state and institutional policymakers with the type of data available from the federal government that could be used for conducting their own analyses of student persistence.

    2003 ~ 40pp. ~ Pub #8A21 ~ Printed copies available ~ PDF ~ 2.2 MB~ DOWNLOAD

  • Integrating Financial Aid and Financing Policies: Case Studies from Five States
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    These case studies of Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Missouri, and Oregon were designed to help equip policymakers and higher education leaders from all sectors more effectively address key public policy issues concerning the structuring of financing and financial aid to achieve goals of access to quality higher education. The overarching question the project hoped to address through the case studies and other project activities was: How can policymakers at all levels – most particularly those at the state level – more effectively integrate tuition, financial aid, and appropriations policies in ways that promote student participation and completion? The results of the states’ work are linked back to the overall goals and objectives of the Changing Direction project in an effort to illustrate how the integration of public policies around financing and financial aid might be approached.

    2003 ~ 42pp. ~ Pub #8A23 ~ Printed copies available ~ PDF ~ 2.9 MB~ DOWNLOAD

  • Linking Tuition and Financial Aid Policy: The State Legislative Perspective
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    Realizing the importance of state legislatures in discussions relating to issues on financial aid and financing in higher education, WICHE commissioned the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to create and administer a survey of state legislators to explore linkages between state funding and state student financial aid policy. The survey is part of a major project, Changing Direction: Integrating Higher Education Financial Aid and Financing Policies, supported by Lumina Foundation for Education, that examined how to structure financial aid and financing policies and practices to maximize participation, access, and success for all students. Because state legislators are key players in the education policymaking process, their insights contributed significantly to the overall work of this project.

    2003 ~ 21pp. ~ Pub #8A22 ~ Printed copies available ~ PDF ~ 1 MB~ DOWNLOAD

  • Policies in Sync: Appropriations, Financial Aid and Financing for Higher Education
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    This compilation of four papers is Changing Direction’s initial look into a system comprised of integrated financial aid and financing policies and includes: (1) Financing in Sync: Aligning Fiscal Policy with State Objectives; (2) The Governance Context for State Policies on Appropriations, Tuition, and Financial Aid; (3) Informing the Integration of Tuition, Student Financial Aid, and State Appropriations Policies; and (4) Information Sources for Answering Key Financing and Financial Aid Policy Questions: Current Practice and Future Possibilities. Each paper examines a different aspect—a conceptual framework, governance, data as a tool to integrate policy, and what states need to know to design integrated policies—all of which are critical to this alignment.

    2003 ~ 74pp. ~ Pub #8A20 ~ PDF ~ 1.1 MB~ DOWNLOAD