Standalone Emergency Financial Assistance Inefficacy
RCTClinical Trial
Low-income community college students experience unexpected personal financial emergencies that threaten their ability to remain enrolled in school. However, offering financial aid grants alone without mandatory social work case management fails to improve student persistence or degree attainment.
Picture this
Giving cash aid without case management is like giving a stranded driver a spare auto part without a mechanic or repair tools. The money briefly patches a surface symptom, but without a trained guide to help re-architect the underlying vehicle setup, another breakdown inevitably pulls the driver off the road.
What the evidence says
No statistically significant difference in six-semester college enrollment (ITT = 0.015, standard error = 0.037) or associate degree completion (ITT = -0.012, standard error = 0.027) compared to the control group.
- Who was studied
- N = 299 students in the emergency financial assistance (EFA) treatment arm and N = 439 control group students at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, Texas.
- How
- Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) providing access to up to $500 per semester ($1,500 three-year maximum cap) for qualified non-academic emergencies.
What to do
Condition emergency financial assistance disbursements on mandatory participation in case management advising rather than distributing standalone emergency cash grants.
From the source
"We find no difference in outcomes between the EFA-only treatment arm and the control group."
Increasing Community College Completion Rates among Low-Income Students: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluation of a Case Management Intervention