Merit Aid and Retention: Mediation and Moderation

Autor/in	Johnson, Iryna
Titel	Merit Aid and Retention: Mediation and Moderation
Quelle	In: Research in Higher Education, 63 (2022) 4, S.713-739 (27 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Johnson, Iryna)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0361-0365
DOI	10.1007/s11162-021-09661-9
Schlagwörter	Merit Scholarships; School Holding Power; Student Financial Aid; College Freshmen; Grade Point Average; School Policy; Educational Change + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Leistungsvergütung; Finanzielle Beihilfe; Studienfinanzierung; Studienförderung; Studienanfänger; Schulpolitik; Bildungsreform
Abstract	When institutions introduce financial aid policies, researchers have an opportunity to study these policies within the framework of a natural experiment. For this methodological note, I use a natural experiment that occurred at the public university when institutional scholarship for all first-time freshmen meeting a minimum high school grade point average and test score requirements was introduced. Scholarship renewal was contingent on credit hour accumulation and grade point averages while in college. I compare students with the same high school grades and test scores before and after the new policy implementation to evaluate the mechanisms of the associations among policy, loss of merit aid eligibility or failure to maintain grades or to accumulate credit hours, and retention. I suggest that "mediation" describes the association between the new policy and retention of high achieving in-state students. After the policy was implemented, these students were more likely to maintain their grades and full-time enrollment to remain scholarship eligible and, therefore, had greater return rates. "Moderation" helps to explain the association between merit aid and retention of out-of-state students. The effect of failure to maintain grades or full-time enrollment on departure was stronger for out-of-state students once financial aid was at stake. Limitations of inferring causation from natural experiments are discussed. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01