ABSTRACT
State-level policymakers and institutional leaders have placed an unprecedented focus on college retention and completion in the past decade. This chapter reviews the evidence on both well-known state policy reforms for improving retention and completion. It emphasizes the importance of theoretical frameworks, or “theories of action,” in designing and implementing state policy in this arena. Performance funding was touted by many advocates as one of the most promising interventions available to improve student retention. Performance funding is intended to push back against any “feathering” by providing college and university leaders with incentives to perform well on goals set for the institution by the state. Performance funding, like goal setting, appears to be a policy direction based more on hope than actual empirical evidence. The theory of action behind restructuring delivery focuses on the idea that the informational complexity of college-going should be lowered as much as possible.
