The Education Research and Data Center has just published a longitudinal study that examined the educational progress and degree completion of students who received State Need Grants (SNG). This study was conducted upon request by the legislature. The cohort included those who received SNGs for first time during the 2007–08 academic year, and tracked their academic progress and degree completion in Washington public institutions across eight years. The summary of the findings and a PDF of the research brief can be found here, and an interactive dashboard of the data can be found here.
Among other things, the study found that most SNG recipients in the cohort were enrolled in community or technical colleges (CTCs), with a small minority who attended four-year institutions. In addition, the majority of SNG recipients who attended four-year institutions earned a bachelor’s degree within five years, and the vast majority of those who earned a bachelor’s degree earned it within five years. In addition, of SNG recipients who attended CTCs (who represent the majority of SNG recipients), forty percent did not persist past the first year (this may be comparable to the persistence rates of CTC enrollees generally). Those who did earn a degree earned it within four years.