| Anna Chung
Indiana University
For-profit colleges -- an opportunity for under-served? Analysis of educational and economic outcomes for proprietary students
This research project will use data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study for the years of 1996 and 2000, the Beginning Postsecondary Study for the years of 1996 to 2001, and the National Education Longitudinal Study: 1988 to examine educational and economic outcomes for students in the for-profit post-secondary institutions. The two main research questions investigated are: 1. How does a change in receipt of federal aid affect an under-served student's persistence and probability of graduation from a proprietary program? and, if higher amounts of federal aid in fact improve persistence outcomes, 2. Are there any significant returns on proprietary schooling that justify federal expenditures?
The study uniquely organizes the inquiry into the original over-arching sequential framework, which captures the complexity of students' decision-making process, makes it possible to use two-stage regression modeling, and yields more meaningful results to policymakers. The project will utilize multiple logistic regression to determine how the amounts of Title IV aid affect for-profit students' within-year persistence and graduation rates. Type II Tobit will be used for the labor-market model to handle sample selection issues with the wage equation. The innovative proposed methodology supplies the study with a feasible population sample, at the same time treating the ominous selection bias. This study will utilize the variable groups never included in the preceding literature: institutional characteristics, opportunity costs, state of the economy, such as business cycles and various industry and state effects.
While a full qualitative and quantitative understanding of proprietary education outcomes is sorely needed to formulate a functional policy, there is not enough quantitative research resolving the increasingly controversial policy issues over for-profit higher education. This study contributes to the very scarce literature on proprietary student research. The results will be of interest to higher education faculty and the institutional research community who study for-profit provision of post-secondary education, policymakers, federal and state education administrators and legislatures, and private individuals considering for-profit post-secondary institutions as educational alternatives to traditional non-profit schools.
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