CUNY Program Raises Graduation Rates with Intensive Support

Education experts have struggled for years with how to raise the dismal graduation rates of community college students. It's a challenging population because so many of them require remedial classes, and may be juggling jobs and family responsibilities. But a new study finds one intensive CUNY program called ASAP has succeeded in its mission to get more community college students to graduate.

After three years, 40 percent of the students in the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs earned degrees, almost double the percentage of those in a control group composed of similar CUNY students. The findings were released by the nonprofit research firm MDRC, which compared about 900 students in the two groups combined.

"Students who participated in ASAP were 18 percentage points more likely to graduate," said Michael Weiss, a senior researcher at MDRC who conducted the study between 2010-2013. He said that's the largest gain in graduation rates his firm has ever tracked at community colleges.

The ASAP program started in 2007 and now has almost 4300 students across seven colleges. It provides students with a wide array of supports over three years. They get special seminars, more intensive advising and career services than typical community college students, plus free Metro cards and textbooks if they keep up their grades. In exchange, they have to stay in school full-time. They can also get a tuition waiver to close the gap between their financial aid and fees.

Weiss said it's impossible to tease out which of these incentives made the biggest difference. He said the program was unique because it targeted students with all different needs. Some are immigrants who need help learning English, while others who live far from campus may have benefited from a simple Metro card.

"So by providing all these things, you just take that many more students where you address the barrier that was going to be the problem for them," he explained.

The CUNY dean in charge of ASAP, Donna Linderman, said she wasn't surprised by the findings because she's seen graduation rates go up. Approximately 80 percent of her students need remedial (also known as developmental) classes in math, English, or writing, which is typical of CUNY's community colleges. About a third of those in the MDRC study were working full-time.

"The program is able to put a full-time schedule together for most students," she said, even those who work and may think they need five or six years to finish.  "And because we're doubling the graduation rate, I think it demonstrates that many students, even those with developmental needs, can go full-time and can graduate in a timely manner."

She also noted that about a quarter of the students in her program transferred to four-year colleges, compared to about 17 percent of those in the control group.

CUNY is planning to expand the ASAP program to 13,000 students at nine campuses over the next three years, thanks to $35 million in city funds. The money is required for the extra advisors, Metro cards and textbooks. This is why the ASAP program cost CUNY about $5000 more per student during the time of the study. Linderman said CUNY has since reduced the cost partly by limiting extra counseling after the first year only to students who really need it. But she said higher costs are justified by higher graduation rates, which save the school money in the long run.

President Barack Obama wants community colleges to produce an additional five million graduates by 2020, with proposals to offer free tuition to more students. A program modeled after ASAP will now be tried and researched at three community colleges in Ohio.

Asked whether CUNY could raise graduation rates even higher, Linderman said she believes more community college students can finish school if given the right help. She said last year's three-year graduation rate was 57 percent, after the MDRC study ended. She said she hopes the schools can some day offer on -site mental health services and jobs to further boost graduation rates.

"We want to keep chipping away until we get higher," she said.