We are pleased to announce the W.E. Upjohn Institute’s new interactive database of place-based scholarship (aka “Promise”) programs. You can use this database to generate profiles of individual programs or to sort programs by a variety of characteristics, including location, year established, source of scholarship funding, type of community served, and other key characteristics.
Promise programs are designed to reduce the cost of higher education for a large segment of a community’s young people, thereby transforming not just the lives of these individuals but also the places in which they live and the school districts they attend. (For more on the Upjohn Institute’s definition of Promise programs, click here.)
Since 2006, the Upjohn Institute has played a leading role in advancing understanding of the Promise movement, beginning with rigorous research on the impact of the Kalamazoo Promise. As other place-based scholarship programs have emerged, the Institute has worked to connect researchers across communities, align analytical approaches, and generate collective knowledge about impact. The Institute has also been a leader in educating stakeholders and policymakers regarding the impact of Promise programs.
We hope that this tool will be of use to Promise stakeholders, present and future; the media; policymakers; and members of the public. We welcome feedback on the database; please email us at promisedatabase@upjohn.org with corrections or additions.