Bridget Terry Long is the Xander Professor of Education and Economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Long is an economist who specializes in the study of education, in particular the transition from high school to higher education and beyond. Her work focuses on college student access and choice and the factors that influence students’ postsecondary and labor market outcomes. Current projects examine the roles of information and assistance in college savings, the completion of aid applications, and college enrollment. Other work examines the effects of financial aid programs, the impact of postsecondary remediation, and the role of college inputs on student outcomes. Long received her Ph.D. and M.A. from the Harvard University Department of Economics and her A.B. from Princeton University. She is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a Research Affiliate of the National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR), and a Research Affiliate with the Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment (CAPSEE). In July 2005, The Chronicle of Higher Education featured her as one of the “New Voices” in higher education and, in 2008, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) awarded her the Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award for excellence in research and published works on student financial assistance. In 2010, Long was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as a member of the National Board of Education Sciences, the advisory panel of the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education. She was elected Vice Chair of the Board in November 2010 and Chair in October 2011.

Degrees

• Ph.D., Harvard University

• Boatman, Angela, B. T. Long, and Eric Bettinger. “Student Supports: Developmental Education and Other Academic Programs.” Forthcoming in the Future of Children volume Postsecondary Education in the U.S. Cecilia Rouse, Lisa Barrow, and Thomas Brock, Eds. (forthcoming)
• Calcagno, Juan Carlos and B. T. Long. "The Impact of Postsecondary Remediation Using a Regression Discontinuity Approach: Addressing Endogenous Sorting and Noncompliance." Under submission. (forthcoming)
• Long, B. T. “Supporting Access to Higher Education: The College Preparation and Financial Assistance Programs of the War on Poverty.” The Legacy of the War on Poverty: A 50 year Retrospective. Martha Bailey and Sheldon Danziger, Eds. Part of a project sponsored by the National Poverty Center and the Russell Sage Foundation. (forthcoming)
• Bettinger, Eric, B. T. Long, Philip Oreopoulos, and Lisa Sanbonmatsu. “The Role of Application Assistance and Information in College Decisions: Results from the H&R Block FAFSA Experiment.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 127(3). Also available as National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Working Paper No. 15361. [equal authorship with Bettinger and Oreopoulos] (2012)
• Bettinger, Eric and B. T. Long. “Does Cheaper Mean Better? The Impact of using Adjunct Instructors on Student Outcomes.” Review of Economics and Statistics 92(3): 598–613. [equal authorship] (2010)
• Long, B. T. Grading Higher Education: Giving Consumers the Information They Need. Washington, D.C.: The Center for American Progress and The Hamilton Project, December. (2010)
• Bettinger, Eric and B. T. Long. “Addressing the Needs of Under-Prepared College Students: Does College Remediation Work?” Journal of Human Resources. 44(3): 736–771. [equal authorship] (2009)
• Bound, John, Brad Hershbein, and B. T. Long. “Student reactions to Increasing College Competition.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 23(4): 119–46. A longer version is available as National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Working Paper No. 15272. (2009)
• Long, B. T. and Michal Kurlaender. “Do Community Colleges provide a Viable Pathway to a Baccalaureate Degree?” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 31(1): 30-53. [lead author] (2009)
• Long, B. T. "What Is Known About the Impact of Financial Aid? Implications for Policy." National Center for Postsecondary Education Working Paper. (2008)
• Osili, Una Okonkwo and Long, B. T. “Does Female Schooling Reduce Fertility? Evidence from Nigeria.” Journal of Development Economics, vol. 87, no. 1, pp. 57-75. (2008)
• Bettinger, Eric and B. T. Long. (2007) “Institutional Responses to Reduce Inequalities in College Outcomes: Remedial and Developmental Courses in Higher Education.” In Stacy Dickert-Conlin and Ross Rubenstein, Eds. Economic Inequality and Higher Education: Access, Persistence, and Success. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. [equal authorship] (2007)
• Long, B. T. (2007) "The Contributions of Economics to the Study of College Access and Success." Teachers College Record. (2007)
• Long, B. T. and Erin K. Riley. (2007) “Financial Aid: A Broken Bridge to College Access?” Harvard Educational Review. [lead author] (2007)
• Bettinger, Eric and B. T. Long. (2005) “Do Faculty Members serve as Role Models? The Impact of Faculty Gender on Female Students.” American Economic Review, vol. 95, no. 2. [equal authorship] (2005)
• Long, B. T. (2004) “Does the Format of an Aid Program Matter? The Effect of In-Kind Tuition Subsidies.” Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 86, no. 3, pp. 767-782. (2004)
• Long, B. T. (2004) “How do Financial Aid Policies affect Colleges? The Institutional Impact of the Georgia HOPE Scholarship.” Journal of Human Resources, vol. 39, no. 3. (2004)
• Long, B. T. (2004) “How Have College Decisions Changed Overtime? An Application of the Conditional Logistic Choice Model.” Journal of Econometrics, vol. 121, no. 1-2: pp. 271-296. (2004)

• Selected to give the Henry and Bryna David Lecture, National Academy of Sciences, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. (2009)
• Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award. Given by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) for excellence in research and published works on student financial assistance. (2008)
• Featured in "New Voices: A Look at the New Generation of Higher-Education Thinkers," Chronicle of Higher Education (2005)
• Morningstar Teaching Award, Harvard Graduate School of Education (2003)
• Selected as a “Rising Star” in the Academy, Black Issues in Higher Education (2003)
• National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship (2002)
• American Educational Research Association Dissertation Award (1999)

• National Board of Education Sciences (NBES), Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education. Presidential Appointment with Senate confirmation. Member (2010 to present). Vice Chair (Nov 2010-Nov 2011). Chair (Nov 2011 to present)
• Member, Board of Directors, MDRC. Member of the Education Sub-Committee. (2010-present)
• Public Education Nominating Council, Commonwealth of Massachusetts – appointed by Governor Deval Patrick (2007-present)
• Lumina Foundation for Education, Research Advisory Committee. (2006-present)
• Trustee, Newbury College, Brookline, MA. (2004-present)
• Faculty Research Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) (2003-present)
• Higher Education Research Consultant, Ohio Board of Regents (2002-present)
• Member, American Economic Association (2000-present)
• Faculty Lecturer, Harvard Institute for Educational Management

• “The Reversal of the College Gender Gap: The Role of Alternatives and College Supply.”
  During the last decade, women have surpassed in men in a number of postsecondary outcomes including college enrollment. Currently, 55 percent of college students are women (NCES, 2004). This trend could have serious implications for returns in the labor market as well as social outcomes such as marriage and fertility. This paper explores several possible explanations for the reversal of the gender gap. While past work has focused on the college wage premium, I also take into account the role of secondary school performance by gender, non-labor market alternatives such as the military and incarceration, and changes in the availability of different kinds of colleges (e.g. community colleges).
• “Mass Instruction or Higher Learning? The Impact of Class Size in Higher Education.” (with Eric Bettinger)
  This paper attempts to measure the effects of collegiate class size on student outcomes such as persistence, subsequent course selection, and major choice. While class size is a perennial issue in literature focusing on primary and secondary schooling, it has been largely ignored in research on higher education. Nonetheless, the effect of class size in college is potentially very important as it impacts everything from competitive rankings (20 percent of the U.S. News and World Report formula focuses on class size) to university budgets. Moreover, the range of possible class sizes is substantial in higher education (as many as 700 per lecture in our data) suggesting large differences in students' classroom experiences and possibly large effects on students' outcomes as well. Few researchers have focused on collegiate class size because data are rarely available. In addition, there are inherent selection problems as higher ability students appear to systematically avoid large classes. To address this hole in the literature, we use a unique data set that includes detailed class size, faculty, and student characteristics and track two cohorts of nearly 41,000 students in four-year, public colleges in Ohio.
• Under-prepared Students in Higher Education: Searching for the Right Policies to Address the Problem of Insufficient Preparation,
  This project examines several policy questions related to the academic preparation of high school students. First, to address the needs of under-prepared students, how should states offer and organize postsecondary remediation? A second major policy debate relates to how to prevent the need for college remediation. Finally, I have examined the effect of remediation on student outcomes in a number of contexts, including Ohio, Florida, and Tennessee.
• Increasing College Enrollment among Low- and Moderate-Income Families: A Program to Improve Access to College Information and Financial Aid. (with Eric Bettinger and Philip Oreopoulos)
  Concerns about the low visibility of aid programs and the complexity of the aid process have spurred calls to simplify the form and enhance the visibility of programs that are meant to educate students about the availability of financial aid. This project provides an intervention that streamlines both the aid application process and students' access to accurate and personalized higher educational information. Using a random assignment research design, H&R Block tax professionals are helping a group of eligible low- to moderate-income families to complete the federal aid application form (FAFSA). Then, families are immediately given an estimate of their eligibility for federal and state financial aid as well as information about local postsecondary options. To track the impact of this intervention, the project data are being linked with college administrative files to determine which individuals elected to enroll and persist in higher education. In summary, our research will examine the effects of a program that attempts to increase awareness about aid and simplify the application process. Moreover, we aim to provide concrete examples of ways to improve college access for low-income students and the effectiveness of financial aid policies.
• “Does Cheaper Mean Better? The Impact of using Adjunct Instructors on Student Outcomes.” (with Eric Bettinger)
  

• Evaluation of the William H Thompson Scholars Learning Community Program, Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, (2012-2012)
  The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation provides intensive support, in the form of financial aid and a host of academic support services, to students attending University of Nebraska campuses through the TSLC program. How this support impacts the educational attainment of scholarship recipients is an empirical question which will be estimated through experimental research undertaken by Josh Angrist, David Autor, and Amanda Pallais at MIT. While this research will estimate overall program effects of the scholarships and learning community supports, one limitation of this study is that it will not disentangle effects among the various supports students receive through the learning communities. As a result, the experimental analysis alone is not sufficient to determine which components of the learning communities effectively impact student outcomes, and which do not. Because the TSLCs are qualitatively different from college support programs that have been previously studied, they are likely to have qualitatively different effects on student achievement. Evaluating them provides a unique opportunity to understand the effects of a comprehensive support system for students, and promises to complement the experimental analysis by exploring what aspects of the learning communities are driving estimated effects in college persistence, performance, and attainment.
• Improving Information and Access to Financial Aid: Expanding the FAFSA Experiment, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, (2009-2011)
  The primary purpose of the grant is to expand the success of the FAFSA Experiment, a previous project that helped families complete the federal financial aid form. Research on its impact suggests that it had a major effect on FAFSA submissions, college enrollment, and financial aid receipt. With this grant, Eric Bettinger at Stanford, Bridget Long at HGSE, and Philip Oreopoulos at the University of Toronto are developing an expanded FAFSA assistance program. They are exploring several possible models to bring the FAFSA project to scale, including developing software that would input tax information gleaned from an income tax return directly into the FAFSA and then provide a guided interview protocol to complete the rest of the questions. They are also exploring possible ways to implement the FAFSA assistance intervention in schools, through external college access programs, and with other community organizations.
• Understanding Barriers and Examining Interventions: A Proposal to Study Postsecondary Access and Success Using State Administrative Data, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, (2008-2012)
  We propose to complete a series of research studies focused on college enrollment and completion to provide a comprehensive and timely perspective on the focus of the Foundation's Postsecondary+ Initiative. Using state and university administrative datasets, we propose to examine three main research questions: (1) who are the underserved students in states’ postsecondary schooling systems; (2) what barriers do students face in accessing and succeeding in higher education; and (3) what are possible solutions and policy interventions to improve collegiate outcomes? The research will principally focus on the barriers of cost, academic preparation, and information policies that are designed to address the challenges of college attainment for underserved students. Additionally, we will investigate more closely the role of community colleges in facilitating increased access and success in postsecondary attainment for underserved students. State and university data are relatively untapped resources that could shed considerable light on these critical research questions. Moreover, they are better for studying the impact of possible interventions than the conventional national datasets, particularly because most of the policy developments in higher education occur at the state or university level. The data for this project will come from a variety of states, including Ohio, Massachusetts, California, and Tennessee (with the possibility of also Texas and Florida).
• Building Infrastructure and Expanding Research in the Economics of Higher Education, Ford Foundation, (2005-2008)
  Higher education is a vital part of American society. It is therefore not surprising that economists are interested in studying the financing of college and the factors that impact student success and graduation. However, the economics of higher education is significantly limited by the availability of relevant data easily accessible and usable by investigators. Among the untapped resources are administrative databases – unit record data on students and institutions that may be available at the state, university, or school level. They hold the promise of helping researchers to answer some of the most pressing questions related to education. Unfortunately, due to significant upfront costs to secure access, encode it to protect student confidentiality, and structure the data for research purposes and, it is difficult for researchers to fully utilize these potential sources of information. Mirroring the issues faced by academic researchers, states, university systems, and districts also have limited capacity to perform research that would help them understand the problems and issues facing their stakeholders.

• A-709   The Economics of Colleges and Universities (Spring 2013)
• A-713   The Role of Policy in College Access and Success (not offered in 2012-2013)

• Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

• Economy and Education
• Educational Equity
• Financial Issues in Education
• Higher Education Administration
• Minorities
• Policy Analysis and Evaluation
• Research Methods

A press release on professor Bridget Terry Long receiving a grant from the Gates Foundation.

A Q & A with Bridget Terry Long on Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings FAFSA plan.

A press release on Bridget Terry Long receiving the Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA).

A feature about Bridget Terry Long's on tax exemptions and incentives for higher education research project