Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Since 2005, over 100 local communities and cities have offered aid for college to their students, making promises to and investments in their students. Recent examples that have been properly evaluated include the Kalamazoo Promise and Pittsburgh Promise. Not surprisingly, even these place-based scholarships differ from one another. This paper studies the effect of receiving an income and achievement-based scholarship, the Achieve Atlanta Scholarship, on college enrollment and college persistence. In addition to the scholarship award, Achieve Atlanta also provided coaching to the students through multiple nonprofits. The scholarship requires two-year of continuous enrollment in the Atlanta Public Schools, Pell Grant eligible (need-based aid), and a high school GPA of B or higher (merit-aid). Students can enroll in either in-state or out-of-state if its an approved institution. To evaluate the scholarship, we use both regression discontinuity and differences-in-differences analysis. Understanding how this scholarship program serves low-income students in a high poverty school district serves the community can not only serve to inform Achieve Atlanta how to better implement its program but can provide valuable insights into similar programs.