Place-Based Scholarships

Promise: Investing in Community” plays a lead role in advancing understanding of place-based or “Promise” scholarship programs carried out by cities, states, and community colleges to broaden access to higher education by making it more affordable—in many cases, tuition free.

What We've Learned

Simplicity in program design and effective communication about program benefits are essential components of a successful place-based scholarship program. Streamlining the process of learning about postsecondary options and of accessing financial aid can be as important for broadening access to higher education as the funding offered by Promise programs.
Program design matters. Choices about key parameters, especially student eligibility and determining where students can use their funding, will shape both who benefits from a Promise program and its ultimate impact on states and communities. More flexible and generous programs will yield stronger results, but even modest programs—if leveraged successfully—can make a positive difference.
Scholarship money alone is not enough to ensure higher rates of degree or credential attainment. Promise dollars can shift postsecondary choices, but many students—especially those without previous knowledge of colleges or strong networks—will need additional support along the way. Support is especially important at critical junctures, such as the high-school-to-college and college-to-workforce transitions.
Community alignment is a critical element in the success of any Promise program. Promise programs can serve as catalysts for bringing new resources to higher-need student populations, whether through K–12 tutoring, provision of basic-needs support once in college, outreach and reconnection for people who drop out without completing a degree or credential, or the creation of new pathways from college into the workforce. Promise programs can also catalyze change in the systems serving those students—for example, by stimulating the creation of a more robust college-going culture in K–12 school districts or streamlining postsecondary admissions processes.

Building Promise Programs

The Free College Handbook: A Practitioner’s Guide to Promise Programs, a project of the Upjohn Institute, represents a collaboration among a dozen researchers to translate more than a decade of place-based scholarship research into actionable strategies for policymakers and practitioners. The Free College Handbook helps you easily understand the strategies and best practices for building a Promise program in your own community.

Partnering with Communities

We partner with a broad range of stakeholders to help design effective place-based scholarship (Promise) programs for states and communities. To date, we have worked with upwards of 40 communities to design scholarship programs that address their local needs and to estimate the cost of such programs. We also partner to provide consulting and evaluation on the impact of existing programs.

Learn More

Promise Databases and Tools

Promise Programs Database This searchable database, compiled by Upjohn Institute researchers, includes key features of community-based and institution-based Promise scholarship programs, along with a research file containing 100-plus program characteristics.

Kalamazoo Promise Interactive Data The Upjohn Institute tracks several usage and success measures of the Kalamazoo Promise. We provide numerous tables and figures containing demographic breakdowns.

Cultivating Knowledge

We work to connect researchers across communities, align analytical approaches, and generate collective knowledge about the Promise movement. We are a leader in educating stakeholders and policymakers regarding the impact of Promise programs.

Promise Research Bibliographies

These bibliographies, organized both by author and by topic, provide links to scholarly research on the impacts of Promise programs. The focus is on community-based programs and studies that use causal methodologies, but some general literature is also included.

Books/Book Chapters

The Path to Free College: In Pursuit of Access, Equity, and Prosperity

In The Path to Free College, Michelle Miller-Adams argues that tuition-free college, if pursued strategically and in alignment with other sectors, can be a powerful agent of change. She makes the case that broadly accessible and affordable higher education is in the public interest, yielding dividends not just for individuals but also for the communities, states, and nation in which they reside.

Promise Nation: Transforming Communities through Place-Based Scholarships

Miller-Adams describes how the various “Promise-type” place-based scholarship programs impact college access, financial aid, and community transformation.

The Short-Term Effects of the Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship on Student Outcomes

In order to study whether college scholarships can be an effective tool in raising students’ performance in secondary school, we use one aspect of the Kalamazoo Promise that resembles a quasi-experiment. The surprise announcement of the scholarship created a large change in expected college tuition costs that varied across different groups of students based on past enrollment decisions. This variation is arguably exogenous to unobserved student characteristics. We estimate the effects of this change by a set of “difference-in-differences” regressions where we compare the change in student outcomes in secondary school across time for different student “length of enrollment” groups. We also control for student fixed effects. We find positive effects of the Kalamazoo Promise on Promise-eligible students large enough to be deemed important – about a 9 percent increase in the probability of earning any credits and one less suspension day per year. We also find large increases in GPA among African American students.

The Power of a Promise: Education and Economic Renewal in Kalamazoo

In the first comprehensive account of the Kalamazoo Promise, Michelle Miller-Adams addresses both the potential and challenges inherent in place-based universal scholarship programs and explains why this unprecedented experiment in education-based economic renewal is being emulated by scores of cities and towns around the nation.

Journal Articles/Working Papers

Promise Program Design for Equity Outcomes: A Landscape Survey

Using the W.E. Upjohn Institute’s Promise Programs Database—a searchable data set covering about 200 place-based scholarship programs—this paper explores how the design of Promise programs can shape their equity impacts. The authors first examine the landscape of place-based programs to understand the impact of program design on equity outcomes. They then use the statistical method of polychoric correlation to combine design features related to the equity potential of community-based Promise programs and develop an index expressing this concept. They conclude with two vignettes of recently announced Promise programs with different design features and implementation strategies to highlight the varied paths to equitable student outcomes. The paper finds that while some Promise programs have more potential than others to close equity gaps, whether they in fact do so will depend on implementation. Ongoing definitional debates, program heterogeneity, and the difficulty of observing implementation all complicate the task of assessing equity impact and underscore the need for more qualitative research focused on questions of equity and effectiveness.

The Effects of the Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship on College Enrollment and Completion

We estimate the effects on postsecondary education outcomes of the Kalamazoo Promise, a generous, place-based college scholarship. We identify Promise effects using two forms of difference-in-differences: (i) comparing eligible to ineligible graduates before and after the Promise’s initiation and (ii) comparing the treated district to comparison districts before and after the Promise’s initiation. According to our estimates, the Promise increases college enrollment and credential attainment. Stronger effects occur for women. The results also provide suggestive but less precise evidence that Promise effects extend to disadvantaged groups.

Modeling First Year Stop Out of Kalamazoo Promise Scholars: Mapping Influences of Socioeconomic Advantage and Pre-College Performance to College Performance and Persistence

The Kalamazoo Promise (KPromise) is amongst the most well-known and generous tuition-free policies. This study advances the understanding of Promise student performance and persistence. We used a weighted-least square means and variance adjusted (WLSMV) SEM approach and k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) to deal with missing data. The main model suggested first-year college GPA (β = –.48) possessed the strongest effect on a first-year stop out followed by socioeconomic advantage (β = –.26), high school performance (β = –.25), immediate enrollment (β = –.22), and KPromise funding (β =.06). Model differences from 06–10 and 11–15 cohorts, illustrate that in the later cohorts socioeconomic advantage’s effect on a first-year stop out lessened.

Sometimes a Long and Winding Road: An Exploration of Kalamazoo Promise Stop Out and Reenrollment

This exploratory, descriptive study examined trends associated with Kalamazoo Promise (KPromise) student stop out, reenrollment, and persistence to a credential upon reenrollment. For the 2006–2017 cohorts, 78% were retained from first to second year. Inferential models suggested that first-year stop out was mainly correlated to students’ high school free-and-reduced lunch eligibility (FRL) and high-school GPA. Forty-five percent of stopped out students reenrolled, and reenrollment was primarily correlated with time. The median time to return was 3 non-summer semesters, with Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino(a) students predicted to reenroll in fewer semesters than White students. For the 2006–2012 cohorts, 30% of all stopped out students who reenrolled have earned a degree to date. Upon reenrollment, nearly half of all postsecondary certifications were earned by FRL students. Discussion links our findings to wider trends, highlights actions to bolster outcomes, and illustrates how this study could be a benchmark comparison for other tuition-free policies.

Beyond Degrees: Longer Term Outcomes of the Kalamazoo Promise

We estimate the effects on workforce and location outcomes of the Kalamazoo Promise, a generous, place-based college scholarship. Drawing upon administrative unemployment insurance wage records merged with individual-level education data, we identify Promise effects by comparing eligible to ineligible graduates before and after the Promise’s initiation. We supplement this quantitative analysis with surveys and interviews. Despite earlier research showing that the Kalamazoo Promise substantially increased degree attainment, we find little evidence that the program affected average earnings within 10 years of high school graduation. However, the Kalamazoo Promise may have increased the likelihood of eligible graduates having earnings, within Michigan, in the middle of the distribution. We discuss the possible role of job availability in understanding these patterns and the implications for free-tuition college programs as a workforce development tool.

The Effects of the Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship on College Enrollment, Persistence, and Completion

We estimate the effects on postsecondary education outcomes of the Kalamazoo Promise, a generous, place-based college scholarship. We identify Promise effects using difference-in-differences, comparing eligible to ineligible graduates before and after the Promise’s initiation. According to our estimates, the Promise significantly increases college enrollment, college credits attempted, and credential attainment. Stronger effects occur for women.

The Merits of Universal Scholarships: Benefit-Cost Evidence from the Kalamazoo Promise

As higher education costs rise, many communities have begun to adopt their own financial aid strategy: place-based scholarships for students graduating from the local school district. In this paper, we examine the benefits and costs of the Kalamazoo Promise, one of the more universal and more generous place-based scholarships. Building upon estimates of the program’s heterogeneous effects on degree attainment, scholarship cost data, and projections of future earnings by education, we examine the Promise’s benefit-cost ratios for students differentiated by income, race, and gender. Although the average rate of return of the program is 11 percent, rates of return vary greatly by group. The Promise has high returns for both low-income and non-low income groups, for non-whites, and for women, while benefit assumptions matter more for whites and men. Our results show that universal scholarships can reach many students and have a high rate of return, particularly for places with a high percentage of African-American students. They also highlight the importance of disaggregating benefits and costs by subgroup when performing benefit-cost analysis when the treatment is heterogeneous.

Migration and Housing Price Effects of Place-Based College Scholarships

Place-based college scholarships, such as the Kalamazoo Promise, provide students who live in a particular place, and/or who attend a particular school district, with generous college scholarships. An important potential benefit from such “Promise programs” is their short-term effects on local economic development. Generous Promise scholarships provide an incentive for families to locate in a particular place, which may change migration patterns, and potentially boost local employment and housing prices. Using data from the American Community Survey, this paper estimates the average effects of eight relatively generous Promise programs on migration rates and housing prices in their local labor market. The paper finds evidence that Promise programs lead to significantly reduced out-migration rates for at least three years after a Promise program is announced. These reductions in out-migration rates are larger for households with children, and are also larger when we focus on smaller areas around the Promise-eligible zone rather than the entire local labor market. These out-migration effects are large, implying that Promise programs lead to a 1.7% increase in overall population of the local labor market.

The Kalamazoo Promise, and Enrollment and Achievement Trends in Kalamazoo Public Schools

This paper examines three types of KPS trends that may represent Promise effects: 1) trends in overall enrollment, 2) trends in relative enrollment by ethnic group, and 3) trends in KPS achievement on the standardized test used by the state of Michigan for No Child Left Behind accountability, the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) test.

Can Universal, Place-Based Scholarships Reduce Inequality? Lessons from Kalamazoo, Michigan

The Kalamazoo Promise, announced in 2005, is an innovative college-scholarship program available to every graduate of the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Public Schools. Programs such as the Kalamazoo Promise, which is being emulated in cities across the United States, open new avenues for the acquisition of human capital regardless of income level or academic achievement, while facilitating the creation of new economic and social assets for the community. Following a brief explanation of the program itself, this paper examines the Kalamazoo Promise as a human capital-investment strategy and its potential as a mechanism for reducing inequality. I find that the Kalamazoo Promise and programs modeled on it can reduce inequality, although not necessarily in expected ways. While full college scholarships in and of themselves open the path to free higher education for all youth in a community, the barriers to success remain high for economically disadvantaged and lower-achieving students. The more powerful influence of such programs on inequality comes from their role as a catalyst for change in the culture of the school district and for the alignment of a community’s resources around the broader goals of the program.

Reports and Policy Papers

The Free College Handbook: A Practitioner’s Guide to Promise Research

Translating more than a decade of research into actionable strategies, the Free College Handbook is designed to help you understand how reducing college costs can simultaneously help students and the places they live.

How College Enrollment Changed for Kalamazoo Promise Students Between Fall 2019 and Fall 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic greatly reduced the college enrollment rate for students during the Fall 2020 semester. National data show that although enrollment of new students declined overall, it varied substantially by institution type and student characteristics. What national data do not reveal is how certain communities with already high college-going rates responded to the pandemic. We use data from Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS) and the tuition-free program the Kalamazoo Promise to compare the immediate college enrollment of graduating high school students from the class of 2019 to that of the class of 2020. Overall, immediate college enrollment of KPS graduates declined from 74 percent to 60 percent. These declines were concentrated at two-year institutions among students who were socioeconomically disadvantaged, as well as among Black and Hispanic students. Contrary to national trends, immediate enrollment for KPS graduates at four-year institutions increased, with gains driven primarily (but not entirely) by White students. We present suggestive evidence that the Kalamazoo Promise, and policy decisions at four-year colleges, allowed some students to “trade up” from a two-year to a four-year institution.

The Kalamazoo Promise “Sweet 16,” Summary Study Results: 16 Key Findings from 16 Years Studying The Kalamazoo Promise

In honor of the Kalamazoo Promise’s “Sweet Sixteenth,” we have compiled 16 key findings from our 16 years of studying the Kalamazoo Promise into one illustrated booklet. Although additional research is ongoing, the studies that have been completed show the immense impact of the Kalamazoo Promise on the lives of the residents of the Kalamazoo community.

Economic Benefits and Costs of Tuition-Free College in Illinois

This memo estimates the main economic benefits of tuition-free college in Illinois. These economic benefits are compared with the costs of making tuition free. In addition, we consider possible fiscal benefits of tuition-free college and whether these fiscal benefits for Illinois will offset the fiscal costs of making tuition free.

Promise Scholarship Programs and Local Prosperity

We argue that place-based college scholarships, if designed intentionally and leveraged effectively, can foster local economic development. Since the introduction of the Kalamazoo Promise in 2005, a growing number of communities have applied the place-based approach to investments in human capital through the creation of college scholarship programs. Reviewing the existing literature on educational and economic outcomes associated with Promise programs reveals that they can expand students’ postsecondary aspirations, improve a school district’s college-going culture, and increase college enrollment and degree attainment while promoting in-migration of residents and positive growth in housing prices. Therefore, these programs can serve a broader communal interest, benefiting both individuals (e.g., through higher earnings) and their localities. We conclude this report by outlining observations for city leaders and local policymakers that can be distilled into lessons concerning the civic engagement and economic vitality of a community, the attainment of equity in student outcomes, and the scale and sustainability of a program’s design. We hope the evidence presented in this report will aid in the design, adoption, and scaling of programs that harness community assets and respond to community needs.

A Second Look at Enrollment Changes after the Kalamazoo Promise

While previous research has documented how the Kalamazoo Promise, the most prominent and generous place-based college scholarship program, increased enrollment in Kalamazoo Public Schools, this paper qualifies and quantifies the characteristics of students who were induced to enter—or stay—in the district. In particular, it analyzes the origins and destinations, socioeconomic composition, and school-level sorting behavior associated with student flows around the time of the Promise announcement. These dimensions are more subtle than changes in the volume of students or measures of their individual success, but they are equally important to understand for communities exploring the feasibility of place-based scholarships as a local economic development tool. The findings suggest considerable economic benefits not just for the school district but for the broader metropolitan area.

The Kalamazoo Promise and Changing Perceptions of the Kalamazoo Public Schools

This research brief addresses the question of whether the introduction of the Kalamazoo Promise in late 2005 brought about a shift in media coverage of Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS). It is part of an effort to examine the nonacademic effects of the Kalamazoo Promise—more specifically, if and how the Promise has changed the broader community. A review of educational content in the Kalamazoo Gazette and the Grand Rapids Press pre- and post-Promise announcement was analyzed to determine whether the introduction of the Kalamazoo Promise changed media coverage, thereby affecting community perceptions of KPS as compared to Grand Rapids Public Schools. Data from January–June 2005 and 2008–2010 were used as pre- and post-Promise time periods. Data were not collected from the end of 2005 through 2006 to avoid a skewed sample because of the announcement of the Kalamazoo Promise, nor were data collected from 2007 because of the superintendent search then under way at KPS. Articles from these time periods with substantive educational content were then coded as positive, negative, or neutral. The content analysis shows that the amount of coverage of KPS increased post-Promise and the percentage of positive coverage increased. There were no corresponding increases in either the volume or the nature of content in the Grand Rapids Press.

The Impact of the Kalamazoo Promise on College Choice: An Analysis of Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center Graduates

The Kalamazoo Promise has led to a pronounced shift in the college-going patterns of Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS) students who attend the Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center (KAMSC). Following the introduction of the Kalamazoo Promise in 2005, the percentage of KPS KAMSC students attending public, in-state institutions of higher education has almost doubled—a shift that reflects the program rules of the Promise, which covers tuition and fees only at public postsecondary institutions in Michigan. The percentage of non-KPS KAMSC students attending an in-state, public institution also rose in the post-2006 period but only very slightly, suggesting that the Promise has shifted college choices among the eligible student population.

Cost Estimates

Estimated Cost of Tuition-Free College in Illinois

Cost Estimations of Potential Scholarship Programs for the Rockford Promise

Cost Estimate of a Promise Scholarship Program for the Evart (Michigan) Public Schools

Cost Estimate of a Promise Scholarship Program for the Buchanan (Michigan) Community Schools

Cost Estimate of a Promise Scholarship Program for the City of Jacksonville, Illinois

Estimation of the Cost of an Oregon Promise

Cost Estimate for a Two-Year Beloit Promise

Estimation of the Proposed McKinney Scholarship Programs

Ten-Year Cost Estimation of a Proposed Lansing Promise Scholarship

Estimation of the Cost of a Newark Promise

Toledo Promise Scholarship Concept Study

The La Crosse Promise: Economic Impact Study

Review of the Davenport Promise Concept

Policy Briefs

Beyond Degrees: The Kalamazoo Promise and Workforce Outcomes

Promise Scholarship Programs and Local Prosperity

A Second Look at Enrollment Changes after the Kalamazoo Promise

The Value of Universal Eligibility in Promise Scholarship Programs

The Kalamazoo Promise as a Model for an American Promise

A Simple Gift? The Impact of the Kalamazoo Promise on Economic Revitalization

Presentations

The Road to Economic Recovery Runs Through Affordable Higher Education: Preview of Research on the Workforce Outcomes of Community-Based Promise Programs

The Promise Landscape in Michigan

tnAchieves from a National Perspective

Promise Programs, Emergency Aid, and Strategies for College Retention

Learning from a Decade of College Promise Scholarships

The Kalamazoo Promise: Building Assets for Community Change

Mapping the Promise: Critical Pathways

What’s New? What’s Not? The Kalamazoo Promise in the Context of Other Scholarship Programs

Op-Eds and Articles

Promise Programs Are Getting the Job Done

“Next Gen” Promise Programs

How Promise Programs Can Help Former Industrial Communities

We Need Tuition-Free College. For Adults.

Tuition-Free College Plan is Smart Investment in Michigan’s Future

What the Free College Movement Can Learn from Kalamazoo

Michigan is Offering Free College for Essential Workers. The Rest of the Country Should Follow Suit

Don’t Dismiss the Value of Free-College Programs. They Do Help Low-Income Students.

The Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship

We play a leading role in research, evaluation, and community-mobilization activities surrounding the Kalamazoo Promise, an unprecedented experiment in community development that guarantees full college scholarships to potentially every graduate of the Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS).