In 1999, New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s task force on the City University of New York (CUNY) published “An Institution Adrift,” a study of the system’s failings. CUNY, the authors wrote, was “in a spiral of decline.” Noting the system’s low academic standards, declining enrollment, and failing remediation programs, they argued that CUNY was not “carrying out its academic responsibilities with the quality and consistency its vital mission deserves and requires.” But they also maintained that CUNY’s problems were fixable.

They were right — and CUNY’s fortunes have reversed. Through a combination of higher standards, smarter programs, and support from civic and political leaders, CUNY’s administrators have rejuvenated a once-moribund institution. In the last decade, graduation and enrollment rates as well as rates of transfer into CUNY have all increased dramatically. A spirit of optimism and innovation pervades the system.....

.....Start is CUNY’s effort at a “comprehensive reworking of remedial instruction,” says Donna Linderman, CUNY’s university dean for Student Success Initiatives. At a LaGuardia Community College Start class for students needing help in reading and writing, small groups of students sit together at tables while two teachers circulate the classroom. Motivational signs adorn the walls: one, “Classroom Guidelines,” urges students to “Be On Time, Raise Your Hand, Be Prepared, Dress Appropriately, Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Anything!”.....

.....Some 68 percent of Start participants have failed all three CUNY assessment tests, and 31 percent have failed two—but 50 percent show proficiency in three subjects after completing the program, while 31 percent are proficient in two subjects and 14 percent are proficient in one. Start alumni register higher GPAs and better retention than non-Start students in degree programs. MDRC, the social-sciences research organization, is conducting a randomized control study of the program.

CUNY’s persistently low community-college graduation rates presented yet another challenge for Goldstein. His response: the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, which launched in fall 2007 with funding from the city, state, and private donors. ASAP, according to Linderman, “bundles” existing CUNY programs that aim to improve community-college outcomes. Each student gets an advisor to help navigate academic and personal challenges. Students must assume a full-time course load—at least 12 credits each semester. The program recommends that students take summer and winter classes, and it offers course work in in-demand fields. ASAP students take their first-year classes together and attend a weekly advisory seminar. Students’ outside commitments to work and family make community-college retention a challenge, so ASAP offers courses mornings, afternoons, and evenings. To reduce students’ financial impediments, ASAP covers the difference between a student’s financial aid and the cost of attending college, offers funds for textbooks, and provides monthly MetroCards.....

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