Title V: Apoyo Grant Resources

In today’s economy, postsecondary credentials are increasingly important to labor market success. Community colleges provide a key pathway to these credentials for many, including low-income
and nontraditional students. Unfortunately, many community college students leave before
earning a degree or credential, especially those who enter underprepared for college-level work.

As part of MDRC’s multisite Opening Doors demonstration, Kingsborough Community College
in Brooklyn, New York ― a large, urban college in the City University of New York (CUNY)
system ― tested a one-semester learning community program. The program placed freshmen into
groups of up to 25 students who took three classes together during their first semester: a developmental
or college-level English course, an academic course required for the student’s major, and a
freshman orientation course. It also provided enhanced counseling and tutoring as well as textbook
vouchers.

Having a college degree is increasingly important in the U.S. labor market, and workers with a degree earn substantially more, on average, than those without. Recently there has been an unprecedented national focus on boosting the stubbornly low graduation rates of students in community colleges. Community colleges serve millions of the nation’s undergraduates, but only about one-third of those students graduate within five years. Graduation rates are even lower for students who enter college without the math, reading, or writing skills required for college-level courses and thus need to take developmental (remedial) courses. In addition, most college students take longer to graduate than is considered “normal.” For example, a survey of students who started at a public two-year college found that only 4 percent graduated with an associate’s degree within two years.

Educators have tried many reforms to help improve the success rates of community college students. Most of the reforms have been short term, lasting only one or two semesters, and have addressed no more than a few barriers to student success. The Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) is an ambitious and promising exception. Operated by the City University of New York (CUNY), which serves over half a million students annually and is the largest public university system in the country, ASAP provides a comprehensive array of services and supports over a three-year period to help more students graduate and to help them graduate sooner. The program aims to simultaneously address multiple barriers to student achievement over multiple semesters, and is one of the most aggressive efforts in the country to improve the success rates of low-income students.

This brief describes the ASAP program and the students in the study, presents the two-year effects of the program, offers some conclusions, and shares next steps for ASAP and the random assignment evaluation.