Sara Goldrick Rab

Early life

Goldrick-Rab grew up in Fairfax, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. She describes herself as an "East Coast Jewish woman" who was "taught to be outspoken and forthright." Goldrick-Rab graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Ph.D. in sociology in 2004. She intended to pursue a career in applied research until she was encouraged to apply for a position in higher education policy and sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Goldrick-Rab accepted the position in 2004 with the intent to make Wisconsin colleges more accessible. In 2016, Goldrick-Rab left the University of Wisconsin-Madison to accept a position in higher education policy and sociology at Temple University. She married Liam Goldrick, who also works in education policy, in 2005, although the couple has since divorced. They have two children, a son and a daughter.

Career

Her scholarship focuses on postsecondary access and equity, with particular emphasis on financial aid and community colleges. In a study with University of Wisconsin economist Douglas Harris, Goldrick-Rab explored outcomes of low-income students receiving supplemental grants and found that the grants benefitted comparatively disadvantaged students most, such as first-generation college students with lower ACT scores. In an early study of Single Stop, an on-campus program that connects community college students to government services, Goldrick-Rab found that participant retention improved.

Goldrick-Rab served as the lead author of the Brookings Institution's 2009 “Transforming America's Community Colleges” report. Many of its recommendations were included in President Barack Obama’s American Graduation Initiative later that year. She served on a Century Foundation community college equity task force, whose 2013 report recommended more funding for community colleges and reduction of economic and racial stratification between community colleges and four-year universities. As part of the report, Goldrick-Rab co-authored a background paper with Peter Kinsley that highlighted disparities between predominantly white community colleges and those with predominantly minority enrollment. On April 16, 2013, Goldrick-Rab testified before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions regarding the challenge of college affordability, which impacted federal legislation on financial aid limits for working students.

In April 2014, Goldrick-Rab and Nancy Kendall released a Lumina Foundation-funded report that advocated for a free two-year college option. The proposal called for all students to receive two free years of education at a public college or university, including most living expenses, in exchange for fifteen hours per week of work-study employment. The New York Times cited the report as a “clear influence on the Obama plan” for free community college introduced during the 2015 State of the Union Address. The Chronicle of Higher Education similarly included Goldrick-Rab first on their list of people who influenced the plan. Goldrick-Rab praised the Tennessee Promise program, the basis for Obama’s free community college plan. While she appreciated how it makes college attendance a financial possibility for students, she noted its weakness in not providing for their living expenses.

The plan for two free years of college proposed by Goldrick-Rab and Kendall faced extensive criticism, including concerns about its lack of detail, vague definitions of length, and apparent focus on full-time students. David Breneman, an economics of education professor at the University of Virginia, described the plan as “not realistic”. Robert Kelchen, assistant professor at Seton Hall University, called the proposal "unworkable" given its removal of federal financial aid for students attending private universities. Chris Rickert of the Wisconsin State Journal argued that the plan would shortchange Wisconsin private institutions that enroll and graduate more minority students than University of Wisconsin System schools. Similarly, Minnesota higher education commissioner Larry Pogemiller emphasized that the plan neglected private institutions, covered only two years of college, and subsidized all students regardless of financial background.

Goldrick-Rab founded the Wisconsin Harvesting Opportunities for Postsecondary Education (HOPE) Lab in May 2014 to test the efficacy of college affordability programs. The lab received $6.5 million in potential funding from the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, and additional support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the Lumina Foundation, and others. A December 2015 HOPE Lab report noted trends in food insecurity for college students. Following her The New York Times op-ed, Inside Higher Ed's Matt Reed commended Goldrick-Rab for the study's focus on student precarity rather than poverty alone.

Goldrick-Rab spoke against Wisconsin's elimination of faculty tenure from state statute in July 2015. Her subsequent Twitter activity, in which she compared the state governor with Adolf Hitler and discouraged future students from attending the university, drew criticism from conservative news groups. Madison's Faculty Senate steering committee responded that they were "deeply dismayed" by her actions, which they felt had damaged the principle of academic freedom. Goldrick-Rab left Wisconsin in 2016 to begin an appointment at Temple University. In her departure, she criticized the effect of the state's tenure policy on the university's teaching environment.

Goldrick-Rab is the author of the book Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream, which was published in 2016. Paying the Price is about the high cost of higher education in the United States for college and university students, and how the high cost of higher education in the United States has negatively impacted the lives of those who attend college in the United States.

She received the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Early Career Award in 2014. In 2016, Goldrick-Rab was listed in the "Politico 50" list published by Politico Magazine; Goldrick-Rab was listed 13th alongside Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green and Demos senior policy analyst Mark Huelsman for their work in making proposals to make higher education free for many college and university students in the United States part of the American political mainstream.

Selected publications