Can Universal, Place-Based Scholarships Reduce Inequality? Lessons from Kalamazoo, Michigan

The Kalamazoo Promise, announced in 2005, is an innovative college-scholarship program available to every graduate of the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Public Schools. Programs such as the Kalamazoo Promise, which is being emulated in cities across the United States, open new avenues for the acquisition of human capital regardless of income level or academic achievement, while facilitating the creation of new economic and social assets for the community. Following a brief explanation of the program itself, this paper examines the Kalamazoo Promise as a human capital-investment strategy and its potential as a mechanism for reducing inequality. I find that the Kalamazoo Promise and programs modeled on it can reduce inequality, although not necessarily in expected ways. While full college scholarships in and of themselves open the path to free higher education for all youth in a community, the barriers to success remain high for economically disadvantaged and lower-achieving students. The more powerful influence of such programs on inequality comes from their role as a catalyst for change in the culture of the school district and for the alignment of a community’s resources around the broader goals of the program

Promise Nation: Transforming Communities through Place-Based Scholarships

Miller-Adams describes how the various Promise-type place-based scholarship programs impact college access, financial aid, and community transformation.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1253/thumbnail.jp

The Power of a Promise: Education and Economic Renewal in Kalamazoo

In the first comprehensive account of the Kalamazoo Promise, Michelle Miller-Adams addresses both the potential and challenges inherent in place-based universal scholarship programs and explains why this unprecedented experiment in education-based economic renewal is being emulated by scores of cities and towns around the nation.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1009/thumbnail.jp

A Not-So-Simple Gift

In the first comprehensive account of the Kalamazoo Promise, Michelle Miller-Adams addresses both the potential and challenges inherent in place-based universal scholarship programs and explains why this unprecedented experiment in education-based economic renewal is being emulated by scores of cities and towns around the nation.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1009/thumbnail.jp

The Kalamazoo Promise and Changing Perceptions of the Kalamazoo Public Schools

This research brief addresses the question of whether the introduction of the Kalamazoo Promise in late 2005 brought about a shift in media coverage of Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS). It is part of an effort to examine the nonacademic effects of the Kalamazoo Promise—more specifically, if and how the Promise has changed the broader community. A review of educational content in the Kalamazoo Gazette and the Grand Rapids Press pre- and post-Promise announcement was analyzed to determine whether the introduction of the Kalamazoo Promise changed media coverage, thereby affecting community perceptions of KPS as compared to Grand Rapids Public Schools. Data from January–June 2005 and 2008–2010 were used as pre- and post-Promise time periods. Data were not collected from the end of 2005 through 2006 to avoid a skewed sample because of the announcement of the Kalamazoo Promise, nor were data collected from 2007 because of the superintendent search then under way at KPS. Articles from these time periods with substantive educational content were then coded as positive, negative, or neutral. The content analysis shows that the amount of coverage of KPS increased post-Promise and the percentage of positive coverage increased. There were no corresponding increases in either the volume or the nature of content in the Grand Rapids Press