The ability of disadvantaged students to navigate a path to and through college has never been more critical in an era with a broad wage gap based on post-secondary educational attainment. While Pay for Success (PFS) has been deployed effectively in a variety of social policy domains, the movement has largely bypassed the field of higher education.

Our analysis determined that the state-level policy context and existing relationships matter tremendously in leveraging PFS to scale in higher education and imply a strategy that targets jurisdictions that provide favorable state and system-level oversight and financial incentives for higher education institutions (HEIs) to value matriculation, persistence, and graduation.

The ability to share data necessary to measure outcomes and the capacity to develop precise financial valuations are critical PFS baselines. HEIs lacked clear consensus on the permissible level of data sharing within their institution or between it and other entities. They also lack the expertise to conduct a full-cost accounting of how the various factors related to matriculation, persistence, and graduation affect their bottom line. A process of developing data sharing guidance and financial valuation tools for use by HEIs could help address these challenges.

Read the full article on Pay for Success by Tim Silman at Third Sector Capital Partners