Article

CUNY program offers path to get remedial college students on track

Aricka Flowers

| June 25, 2012

As community college administrators work to find ways to get remedial students up to speed academically, the City University of New York (CUNY) has completed a study that may offer a potential blueprint to accomplishing this goal. In 2007, the university launched the a new curriculum, the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), which was specifically formulated to help academically-struggling community college students complete their studies and graduate with a degree. The goal of the program was to graduate at least half of the students in the program within three years, requiring full-time enrollment.

The program provides financial assistance to the students, granting access to free textbooks and public transportation as well as waivers for gaps in tuition and financial aid. The students also received tutoring, career and advising services, and are enrolled in block classes for ASAP students for the first year of schooling as well as an ASAP seminar for at least the first year, which covers “such topics as goal-setting and academic planning,” according to a report on the program by MDRC, which is an education and policy research group.

For the study, MDRC studied ASAP programs at three CUNY campuses: the Borough of Manhattan, Kingsborough and LaGuardia. According to the study’s authors, early results from the program show the ASAP system to be outperforming other community colleges the group has studied. “ASAP’s comprehensive package of financial aid, services, and supports, together with its full-time attendance requirement, has resulted in students taking and passing more credits than they would have otherwise,” reads the report’s abstract.

Here are some of the study’s specific findings on the impact of the ASAP system on enrollment, class completion and student retention:

Enrollment: In the first semester of study by MDRC, ASAP boosted full-time enrollment by 11 percent; 96 percent of the students placed in the ASAP system enrolled full time, compared to 85 percent of students the comparison group.
Course completion: The average number of credits students earned increased by 2.1, according to the study’s abstract, which also states that ASAP “increased the proportion of students who completed their developmental coursework by the end of that semester by 15 percentage points.”
Student retention: The CUNY program saw the proportion of students who returned for a second semester rise by 10 percent, while full-time enrollment during the second semester spiked 21 percent.