Term of Award

Spring 2014

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Education Administration (Ed.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Leadership, Technology, and Human Development

Committee Chair

James Green

Committee Member 1

Michael Moore

Committee Member 2

Bryan Griffin

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is a relationship between financial aid type and academic success in a public two-year institution in the state of Georgia. Financial assistance contributes significantly to higher education in the form of subsidy to the participants in higher education through student financial aid. Much of the research available on this topic is based on data provided by four-year institutions and research was not identified which investigates the aid type and potential relationship to academic success.

In an attempt to establish this relationship, the investigation considered grades earned in foundational coursework as determined by the researcher while in attendance at a higher educational institution and the type of financial assistance received by the student. Data existed that provided the basis for the historical study. Accordingly, the investigation utilized a quantitative approach with an ex post facto design. Specifically, the study compared course grades in specified courses among students who received financial assistance from the following


sources of aid: 1) grants, 2) scholarships, 3) loans, and 4) students receiving no aid. Data for a five year period beginning with the fall of 2006 formed the basis for this study. Included in the data retrieval was information concerning financial aid type, course prefix, course number, grade, high school grade point average (GPA), earned family contribution (EFC), sex, and ethnicity. An analysis of covariance was employed to obtain research results.

The study determined a statistically significant relationship existed between all model predictors (i.e., sex, ethnicity, EFC, financial aid type, and high school GPA) and collegiate GPA at the .01 level of significance. Multiple comparison of mean differences in collegiate GPA’s determined the following statistically significant comparisons at .01 level of significance: females outperformed males, Whites outperformed Blacks, “other” outperformed Black, “No Aid” outperformed Loans, HOPE outperformed Loans, HOPE outperformed Pell/Loans, Pell/HOPE outperformed Loans, recipients of all forms of aid outperformed Loans, Pell/HOPE outperformed Pell/Loans, and recipients of all forms of aid outperformed Pell/Loans.

OCLC Number

1035196966

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