LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas students who received lottery-funded scholarships in 2010 but did not retain them the next year were more likely to be low-income, male and non-white than affluent, female and white, according to a report presented to state lawmakers Tuesday.
Responding to questions posed Monday by members of the Arkansas Lottery Commission Legislative Oversight Committee, officials with the state education and higher education departments on Tuesday presented the committee with a demographic breakdown of students who lost their Academic Challenge Scholarships.
Department of Higher Education Interim Director Shane Broadway said the data was incomplete because it only included students who provided Social Security numbers. He said the percentages should be close enough to make comparisons valid, though they do not add up to 100.
The report showed that 52.7 percent of the students received free or reduced-price lunches in high school and 36.9 percent paid full price for their lunches; 46.6 percent were male and 38.1 percent were female; and 50.2 percent were white and 39.6 percent were non-white.
The report only considered students who failed to maintain eligibility requirements or were eligible but failed to re-apply. It did not consider students who completed their degree or certificate program.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
To maintain an Academic Challenge scholarship, a student must complete at least 12 credit hours in the first semester, 15 hours in the second semester and 30 hours every year thereafter and must maintain a grade-point average of 2.5. Education officials said 41.6 percent of the recipients of the first round of Academic Challenge Scholarships did not retain them in 2011.
The report also showed that the average high school GPA of students who lost their scholarships was 3.03. The average GPA of students who retained their scholarships was 3.52.
The average ACT score of students who lost their scholarships was 21.24. The average ACT score of students who retained their scholarships was 23.65.
Also, 37.7 percent of the students who lost their scholarships attended four-year schools and 51.1 percent attended two-year schools. Broadway said officials have not yet determined how many of the students are still attending college in Arkansas.
Rep. Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, asked Broadway for his thoughts on the ratio between non-renewal at four-year and two-year schools.
“I think certainly one thing that will stand out on the two-year side is the lower GPA and ACT of the student entering there,” Broadway said, adding that he needed to study the brand-new data further.
Talking to reporters later, Broadway cautioned against drawing too many conclusions from the data.
“You’re only dealing with one year’s worth of data, so you really don’t have trends developed,” he said.
Broadway also told the committee Tuesday that higher education officials are looking for ways to improve their methods of notifying scholarship recipients. He said one possible approach might be to notify students by text.
“What we’re figuring out is, they don’t do email anymore. It’s all text,” he said.