Horatio Alger Research

Horatio Alger Association Success Factors Study at NORC at the University of Chicago

The Association completed the preliminary research for the Success Study in 2009, focusing, respectively, on existing academic investigations and other scholarship programs that study success and resiliency among students facing adversity. The design for the continuation of the Success Study has also been completed and the research implementation stage is underway. NORC at the University of Chicago has signed an agreement to conduct this research on behalf of the Association. Under the leadership of 1994 Horatio Alger Association Member, Joseph Neubauer, this study has been selected to identify factors of resilient student success among our own Scholars, the wider population, and also those applicants who were not awarded scholarships. The NORC has developed the current research design in close collaboration with Mr. Neubauer's office.

The study is organized around the assumption that a discernable combination of individual attributes, support structures and educational experiences increase the ability of individuals to overcome adversity and to achieve educational and life success. The main question we propose to address is the relative importance of these factors in determining success. To address this question, we propose three phases of analysis that individually and collectively provide new information on the broad social issues the HAA Success Study project seeks to investigate.

• The first analytic phase will concentrate on identifying factors that have been instrumental in the lives of students up to the point of applying for the HAA scholarship.
• With the second phase of analysis we will examine aspects of the HAA program that determine educational, occupational, and life success among HAA Scholars.
• The third and final analytic phase will address overall effectiveness of the HAA Scholarship Program by evaluating differences between scholars and comparable non-recipients (i.e., program applicants who were ultimately not selected as HAA Scholars as well as a non-applicant population) across a range of outcomes encompassing numerous measures of success and spanning personal and professional domains.

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Horatio Alger Association Collection at Boston University's Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center

As part of the ongoing initiative to properly preserve and safeguard its 63-year history, founding documents, and uniquely American biographical materials, the Horatio Alger Association has established its permanent archival collection at Boston University's Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center. The inaugural Association Archives were delivered to Boston University in December 2009. Association staff were invited to accompany this delivery, tour the facility, and assess the technical reception of Association materials. Association staff are now working closely with the Archival Research Center to further develop the Collection in its new home. Recent additions to the Collection have included the 2010 Horatio Alger Awards materials and a three volume set of the Association's historical Board of Directors Meeting Minutes, delivered on June 22, 2010. The Association has also made its first request to Members for archival donations in preparation for an opening exhibit.

The Association is grateful to 1992 Horatio Alger Association Member and former President of Boston University, John Silber, for his vital collaboration in establishing this important Collection of the Association's historic materials and biographical records.

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