Published Online in:
AERA Open
August 26, 2025

Becca Spindel Bassett, University of Arkansas

Very few four-year American colleges and universities consistently enroll and graduate substantial proportions of low-income students. The outlier institutions that do—institutions I term Equity Engines—are vital social resources for both low-income students and our democratic society. Yet like other valuable resources, they are unevenly distributed across the United States. Drawing on geospatial analysis and bivariate mapping, I examine the relationship between access to and need for Equity Engines across states and within them. Moving from the state to the census tract level, I find compounding geographic barriers to bachelor’s degree completion in southern states. These states have high rates of youth poverty and no or minimal access to colleges and universities that are consistently accessible to and effective at serving low-income students. In contrast, states that are effectively meeting high need with high access have multiple public Equity Engines, a worthy and feasible goal for all states.

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Read the press release: "Access to Four-Year Colleges that Effectively Serve Low-Income Students Is Uneven Across U.S., New Study Finds"

Video: Author Becca Spindel Bassett discusses findings and implications of the study

Study citation: Bassett, B. S. (2025). Where there is no equity engine: Unequal geographies of college success for low-income students. AERA Open, 11(1). http://www.doi.org/10.1177/23328584251361048