Zero-Textbook-Cost Degrees
This project evaluates California's Zero Textbook Cost degree program and studies how access to ZTC courses affects short- and long-term academic outcomes.
Research question
How does access to zero-textbook-cost courses and degree pathways affect enrollment, course completion, persistence, credit accumulation, and longer-term student success?
Why it matters
Textbook costs can create immediate barriers to course participation and completion. Statewide evidence can show whether reducing those costs changes academic behavior and outcomes, and for which students the effects are largest.
About the project
The study links participation in California's Zero Textbook Cost program to academic records in order to estimate short- and longer-term effects on student progress and achievement.