WestEd’s evaluation of uAspire’s Afford program describes findings on both the implementation and impact of the program for the 2017-2018 implementation year and summarizes results from the previous years of the study.

The evaluation addressed questions about program fidelity; the effectiveness of the program in increasing student understanding of the financial aid process, helping students complete and submit financial aid forms, and assisting students in leveraging financial aid; as well as supporting students to enroll and persist in postsecondary education.

The research design for the impact evaluation was an RCT, with an accompanying PSM-matched QED that examined only those treatment students receiving all three of uAspire’s core services.

The evaluation found that the program was implemented with fidelity and that the program achieved many of the logic model outcomes it set out to accomplish, including:

  • Afford participants were statistically more likely to submit the FAFSA/CA Dream Act application with greater accuracy than control group participants
  • Afford participants were statistically more likely to report higher understanding of the financial aid process and had higher beliefs that college can be affordable compared to control group students.

Findings of the QED show that uAspire had a greater impact on treatment students who received all three core curricular activities than it had on the entire treatment group who only completed some of the core activities.

Download the Report Brief for more information.