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HOPE retention rates concern state officials
By: Brian C. Browley
Senior Staff Reporter
Posted: 10/9/06
State government and education officials are concerned about the retention of the Tennessee Lottery's HOPE scholarships among African-American students and students of low-income families.
Black scholarship recipients and those from lower income families retain their scholarship in lower numbers than whites and higher income families, according to the Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship's Annual Report for 2005-06.
The report stated that 5,771 recipients of the scholarship were from households with incomes less than or equal to $36,000. Out of this number, 55 percent (3,178) failed to retain the award. Conversely, more than 7,000 of the award recipients were from homes with incomes greater than or equal to $75,000. Of this group, 42 percent (2,917) failed to retain
their award.
Richard Rhoda, executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, said students who were awarded HOPE based solely on their high school grade point averages were not retaining the scholarship at a higher ratio than those who met the criteria based on their ACT scores.
"(S)tudents who (were) awarded the scholarship on GPA alone are the ones who are having a tougher time retaining
the scholarship," Rhoda said. "We're concerned about that…"
Rhoda also said the students who did not retain the scholarship generally failed to meet the criteria by a large margin.
"Those who didn't make the '2.75' (required grade point average) didn't miss it by a hair, they missed it by a mile," he said.
According to the report, 57 percent of the first-time freshmen recipients who failed to retain their scholarship had scored a 21 or below on the ACT. The report also stated, "an ACT score greater than or equal to 21 and a requirement merely of 22 would have resulted in a loss of 80 percent of the scholarships granted to African-Americans in Tennessee."
The report went on to state, "lowering of the eligibility requirement to a '20' or '19' would still prevent 60 and 46 percent (African-Americans), respectively, from receiving aid."
However, State Senator Thelma Harper, a TSU graduate, blamed the retention rates on a continuous rising of the requirements for students' eligibility for receiving the HOPE scholarship.
Though effects of a recent change in the state ACT requirement of the scholarship to a 21 are as of yet unknown, Harper said the decision to raise the requirement was a bad one.
"You've got poor people playing the lottery and wealthy people benefiting from it," Harper said. "The average ACT score is 18. I thought it was mean-spirited when they raised (the requirement)to 21 because it gave the appearance that they were trying to eliminate a certain segment from higher education.
"I think you will see a movement to raise it even higher based on what (Rhoda) said about TSU's scores are lower than any other schools in the system," she added.
Additionally, the report identified that while 47 percent of white students failed to retain their lottery scholarships as sophomores, 63 percent of African- American students lose their scholarships during the same time frame. Of the 2,315 African-American students awarded HOPE scholarships, 1,459 lost the award after their freshman year.
The THEC and Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation have taken cues from the state of Georgia due to the proximity of the state and the success of its program but still made additional provisions to allow more students access to the award, according to Rhoda.
"We look primarily at Georgia because they are the closest and they have the greatest track record," Rhoda said. "They were always at 50 percent (retention). They require a 3.0 at the end of the 24 (required credit) hours, we thought we were building in a cushion where it could be as low as a 2.75…we still have attrition problems…(so) now the question is, 'could we drop it even lower and retain more students?'"
The report states that 73 percent of students who received HOPE would not have been eligible if Tennessee "had followed the path of sister programs and tied eligibility solely to performance of a 21 on the ACT."
Due to the early stages of the program, steps are currently being taken to shape the standards for students awarding and retaining the scholarships.
"It's long-term and we're learning with this program," Rhoda said. "There are a lot of people who study (this)… "It's going to take some time to get this engrained in all the students," Rhoda added. "At some point the lottery is going to stop generating money at a certain level. It hasn't stopped yet so the program is continuing to grow. The general assembly has increased the dollar amount each year so it is more of a benefit, so the program is going to be around a long time."
Even though students may lose the award after their freshman year, there are provisions to appeal the loss of their scholarship, according to Robert Biggers, lottery scholarship administrator for the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation.
"We know that young minds, freshmen, students… may not make that hurdle and stumble academically, so provisions were made to give students another opportunity to regain the award," Biggers said.•
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