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The authors investigate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) risk factors, suitability of online instruction, politics, and institutions' finances as rationales guiding instructional delivery decisions for fall 2020, after COVID-19's emergence. Contributions include estimating multinomial logit regressions with mode of delivery as a categorical variable, integrating resource dependence and crisis response as theoretical frames, and introducing new predictor variables, including a measure of local residential access to broadband Internet. Findings suggest that county populations, local political preferences, and the percentage of revenue derived from auxiliary enterprises were consistent predictors of delivery mode. Political parties of an institution's governor and congressional representative were predictive of delivery mode for institutions in the lowest tercile of endowment per student but not for institutions in the highest tercile. Bottom-tercile institutions substituted from online to in-person reopening as reliance on revenue from auxiliary enterprises increased, but top-tercile institutions appeared only to substitute from hybrid to in-person or from online to hybrid delivery as revenue from auxiliary enterprises or tuition and fees increased.

This study examines the relationship between campus recreation facility access and first-year retention of full-time, first-time undergraduate students at a public university for 2014-2015 through 2016-2017. Authors examine differences between facility users and nonusers by pairing facility swipe card data with student records. Statistical analysis includes logistic regression and matching approaches, controlling for student demographics, academic preparedness, academic goals, family characteristics, and various environmental factors. Results show a positive and significant relationship between recreation facility use and retention, including 7.1 to 8.4 percentage points higher retention for users versus nonusers, holding other variables constant. Subsample analysis suggests the relationship between recreation facility use and retention differs across student subgroups. Key study contributions include linking card swipe data on facility usage with extensive student records, clearly defining facility users and nonusers, and introducing a new robustness check based on assignment of students to residence halls different distances from recreation facilities.

Over the past few decades, technology has revolutionized the way colleges and universities operate. This study examines the extent to which investments in information technology (IT) are associated with the number and types of higher education personnel. After accounting for time lags between IT funding and personnel changes, we found that increases in IT funding were associated with increases in the number of higher education administrators and IT staff but decreases in the number of clerical workers. Our findings suggest that colleges and universities may be substituting expensive labor (higher education administrators and IT staff) for inexpensive labor (clerical workers).

In recent years, multiple-measures teaching evaluation systems have become widespread in states and school districts around the United States. Using administrative data from Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) and the National Student Clearinghouse, we examine the relationship between exposure to different ratings of teaching effectiveness in high school (based on a district-wide multiple-measures evaluation system) and high school graduation and college enrollment outcomes. We find a small but statistically significant difference in college enrollment rates for PPS graduates with more courses with teaching with the highest rating of Distinguished, and these students were also more likely to enroll in selective colleges.

In the United States, public higher education finance policy is primarily decided at the state level, and policies can vary dramatically across state lines. Data was used from 1989-1990 and 2008-2009 to describe these differences and how they have changed over time. Numerous aspects of each state's higher education system were examined--average four-year tuition and fees, average two-year tuition and fees, the share of each state's public enrollment that is located at two-year institutions, total state grant aid, total need-based state grant aid, and total non-need-based state grant aid. The findings reveal substantial variation across states, but these differences across states fell over time for most measures. The relationships between variables also changed. For example, the positive relationship between a state's tuition level and its financial aid offerings declined during the period. Our analyses produce insight into national trends in tuition and grant aid by examining the contribution of individual states to these trends. National figures have been heavily influenced by the decisions of a few large states with atypical finance policies and by the shifting of population away from high-tuition northern industrial states and towards low-tuition Sun Belt states. (Contains 4 figures and 16 footnotes.)

This study seeks to update past studies of rural youth by examining college attendance and choice decisions for students who graduated from rural high schools, while also conducting an examination of how the effects of socioeconomic status manifest differently by locale. Logistic regression is used to study the postsecondary attendance and institutional choice for rural students. Data are taken from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. The results reveal clear differences in postsecondary attendance and initial institutional chose for youth from rural locales. Socioeconomic effects also differ for rural and non-rural youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]