There’s a proven fix for an urgent education problem — Congress should embrace it
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“Cataclysmic” — that’s how one researcher described the recently reported drop in U.S. college enrollment. “With the exception of wartime,” he observed, “the United States has never been through a period of declining educational attainment like this.”
That decline received extensive media coverage — far more than another cataclysm in the higher education system that’s gone unaddressed for years: Among the third of full-time U.S. students who attend two-year community colleges, more than 70 percent fail to finish their degrees.
That’s millions of students who begin higher education, only to stop midway through. In total time and resources wasted, and in human potential unfulfilled, this community college dropout problem is a striking national challenge.
Recent research from the nonprofit research organization MDRC points to a solution. MDRC studied a program instituted by three Ohio community colleges — Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Cuyahoga Community College, and Lorain County Community College. These institutions adopted the Accelerated Study in Associates Program, or ASAP, a model conceived by the City University of New York (CUNY) in 2007.
Students enroll in a full course load, plus developmental education courses and summer classes. In exchange, students receive wraparound services to help get them over the graduation finish line, including tuition fee waivers, transportation benefits, and book subsidies.
Students also receive intense advisory support. An average community college advisor has 441 advisees; in the ASAP program, an advisor serves roughly 150 students. The ASAP advisors are assigned to students upon enrollment, and they stay with them throughout their time at college. They meet with students at least twice a month at the start of their schooling and keep in frequent touch via texting. They help students choose the right courses, connect to necessary resources, and adapt to student life.
The research shows that high-touch engagement of this kind makes a powerful difference. Unlike most students at selective institutions, first-time students at two-year community colleges face a distinct set of challenges. Many are older and have children, and they’re often juggling work and parenting responsibilities alongside their studies. They also face higher rates of housing, food, and medical insecurity — all of which contribute to lower degree completion rates.
When MDRC researchers first tested the ASAP pilot program at CUNY in 2015, the results were promising: After three years, 40 percent of ASAP students graduated, compared with just 22 percent of the rest of the student population. Six years later, those ASAP students kept outperforming the control group, with more than half earning degrees, compared to 40 percent of non-ASAP students.
The program didn’t just get students to graduation day — it helped them earn more money as alumni. Among student participants, there was a 50 percent increase in graduation rates and an 11 percent boost to post-graduation earnings.
Just as exciting, an adapted version of the program aimed at increasing completion for students in a four-year program also delivered impressive results. Researchers found that the program achieved a 27 percent increase in on-time bachelor’s degree graduation rate.
The fact that these programs found results in multiple campuses is a big deal. What the latest Ohio findings mean is that the CUNY pilot program’s success wasn’t a fluke or a one-off: Support programs like this can be used on college campuses across the country to meaningfully improve graduation rates. What’s more, the benefits aren’t just measurable in diplomas framed on the wall: ASAP students saw higher wages in the workforce, too.
Washington should take notice. To put it in D.C. parlance, this is a shovel-ready program that actually delivers. Policymakers ought to support it — and other evidence-based programs like it — with additional funding.
The Biden administration proposed significant investments in evidence-based college completion efforts in the original Build Back Better plan. And in 2022, with broad bipartisan support, Congress established Postsecondary Student Success Grants. While the program received only $5 million last year, Congress increased that funding nine-fold to $45 million for 2023. But like all policy programs, that funding is at risk in an era of tighter budgets and competing priorities.
Unlike many other programs, though, wraparound college completion efforts have a proven, data-backed track record. They’ve consistently produced astonishing results across multiple contexts, providing students both college degrees and better long-term livelihoods. And if Washington is serious about addressing the nation’s college attainment cataclysm, programs like ASAP are a solution that deserve public support.
Kelly McManus is vice president of higher education at Arnold Ventures. Shrutika Sabarwal is director of evidence-based policy at Arnold Ventures.