Explore the Research

California Community Colleges Links to an external site. 

$5 million in state funding was allocated in 2017 to launch the Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) degree initiative with the primary goal of increasing student success through reducing cost barriers. It would enable 23 colleges to develop 34 degree or certificate pathways where textbook costs had been completely eliminated through the use of OER or materials that were zero cost to students. Increased success rates were observed for all students in classes using OER or zero cost materials, especially for minorities and students receiving Pell grants.

 

Florida Virtual Campus Textbook Survey

The Florida Virtual Campus has conducted four surveys  of students in Florida public colleges and universities (2010, 2012, 2016, 2018), finding that the high cost of textbooks is negatively impacting student access, success, and completion in a variety of ways:

The findings suggest that the cost of textbooks is negatively impacting student access to required materials (66.6% did not purchase the required textbook) and learning (37.6% earn a poor grade; 19.8% fail a course). Time to graduation and/or access is also impacted by cost. Students reported that they occasionally or frequently take fewer courses (47.6%); do not register for a course (45.5%); drop a course (26.1%), or withdraw from courses (20.7%).

Washington State Student Survey

In 2017, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and the Washington Community & Technical Colleges Student Association (WACTCSA) partnered to conduct a survey of over 10,000 Washington state community and technical college students. One goal of this survey was to explore the influence of course materials costs on student enrollment decisions.

Key Findings:

  • Only 47% often have materials on the first day of the class
  • 48% stated that their financial aid money has never or rarely arrived in time to purchase the required course materials by the first day of class
  • 37% took fewer classes because of the cost of materials
  • 38% did not register for a specific class because of the cost of materials
  • 57% borrowed the materials from someone else, due to cost
  • 44% went without the required materials, due to cost
  • 18% dropped or withdrew from classes because of the cost of materials

Historically Underrepresented Groups

The CSUCI White Paper

CSU Channel Islands’ openCI initiative recently completed a campus-wide study of over 700 undergraduate students. This is a unique study because it focuses on exploring the impact of textbook costs specifically on historically underserved populations. Statistical analysis revealed textbook prices to be a significant educational barrier for all CSUCI students, with a disproportionately negative effect among racial/ethnic minorities, low-income students, and first-generation college students.

The study concludes that it is our responsibility as staff, faculty, and administrators to "remove any unnecessary financial barriers to academic success, and to ensure that our students’ learning potential is never limited by their purchasing power."

Key Findings

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Accessible text equivalent of data tables

Note: Asterisks indicate statistically significant findings. One asterisk (*) indicates less than a 5% chance of error due to sampling error, two asterisks (**) indicate less than 1% chance of error, and three asterisks (***) indicate less than .1% chance of error.

 

Attributions:

Page adopted from "Impact of Textbook Costs" "Zero Textbook Cost Pathways: OER & Equity" by Aloha Sargent is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Chart: "2016 Student Textbook and Course Material Survey: Results and Findings" by Florida Virtual Campus  is licensed under CC BY 4.0

"Affordable Cost for Class Materials: 10,000 Washington College Students Have Spoken " by WACTCSA and SBCTC  is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Image:  "State Board Logo" by Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Page adopted from "Historical Underserved Students" "Zero Textbook Cost Pathways: OER & Equity" by Aloha Sargent is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Text and data tables: "Textbook Affordability and Student Success for Historically Underserved Populations at CSUCI " by J. Jacob Jenkins, Jaime Hannans, Luis Sanchez, and Jill Leafstedt for openCI , is licensed under CC BY 4.0