RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.—Researchers at RTI International will study how students and their families pay for college and other forms of postsecondary education, as part of a new contract from the U.S. Department of Education.

The new contract combines the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) with a longitudinal study of Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS), which will follow the progress of students in theJohn Riccobono NPSAS study sample who begin postsecondary education in 2011-2012 for a five-year period through 2017.

This 10-year contract, with options, is estimated to eventually be worth about $70 million, and was awarded to RTI by the National Center for Education Statistics, a division of the U.S. Department of Education.

NPSAS is the only periodic, nationally representative survey of student financial aid, and RTI has conducted it since 1996.

"The study provides data that collectively give a comprehensive picture of postsecondary outcomes and their relationship to financial aid," said John Riccobono, Ph.D., vice president of RTI's Education Studies Division. "The results of this study will help researchers and federal policy makers better understand and address the affordability of college for families and the effectiveness of financial aid programs."

For NPSAS, RTI researchers will collect information on a nationally representative sample of more than 120,000 undergraduate, graduate, and first professional students attending all types of postsecondary education institutions in the United States and Puerto Rico.

The BPS longitudinal study component, which will continue to follow about 23,000 study participants, will gather information on postsecondary persistence, degree completion, and employment as well as the factors related to these outcomes.

Both NPSAS and BPS will create a public use data set that consolidates information from different sources on all the student aid programs funded by the federal government, the states, postsecondary institutions, employers and private organizations. Databases will also provide information on enrollment, employment, and student characteristics for use by education researchers, practitioners and policymakers.

This contract is one of many that RTI researchers perform to assess and improve the quality of early development, education and employment programs in the United States and in many other countries.

About RTI International

RTI International is one of the world's leading research institutes, dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. Our staff of more than 2,800 provides research and technical expertise to governments and businesses in more than 40 countries in the areas of health and pharmaceuticals, education and training, surveys and statistics, advanced technology, international development, economic and social policy, energy and the environment, and laboratory and chemistry services. For more information, visit www.rti.org.

©2009 RTI International. RTI International is a trade name of Research Triangle Institute.

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