Higher Education professor awarded co-funded grant to continue work on performance-based funding

GAINESVILLE, Florida  – Dr. Justin Ortagus, director of the Institute of Higher Education and assistant professor of Higher Education Administration & Policy, and a team of researchers were recently awarded a total of $373,590 to analyze how variations in performance-based funding (PBF) policies impact outcomes for underserved students and under-resourced institutions.

The co-funded grant, titled “The Effects of Variations in Performance-Based Funding Policies on Student Access, Success, and Labor Market Outcomes,” serves as Phase Two of a two-phase project to address the gap in knowledge regarding the impact of PBF policy design elements on college access and student success.

Phase One, funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, consisted of collecting data on PBF policies across PBF-adopting states spanning the past 20 years. Phase Two will leverage that novel dataset to examine whether specific types of PBF policies can reduce, rather than exacerbate, gaps in student access, success and labor market outcomes.

“We’re very excited to continue this collaborative project and look forward to analyzing the data and offering a host of evidence-based recommendations regarding the equity and efficacy of different types of performance-based funding policies,” said Ortagus.

Ortagus will continue to serve as principal investigator for the project alongside co-principal investigators Robert Kelchen, an associate professor in the Department of Education Leadership, Management and Policy at Seton Hall University, and Kelly Rosinger, an assistant professor in the Department of Education Policy Studies and research associate in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Pennsylvania State University.

Arnold Ventures and The Joyce Foundation are providing $270,240 and $103,350, respectively, in co-funding for the grant, which is expected to be completed in July 2021.