Current and Past Research

CUNY ASAP

To facilitate timely degree completion, in 2007 CUNY launched Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP). In 2010, MDRC began a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluation to examine the implementation, cost, and impacts of the program, finding that ASAP had an estimated 18 percentage point effect on three-year graduation rates and increased six-year graduation rates by 10 percentage points. Effects of this magnitude are by far the largest MDRC has found in our 30+ RCT evaluations of community college interventions conducted since 2003.

Supported by the federal Institute of Education Sciences, MDRC is currently conducting a long-term follow-up study that will examine ten-year academic and labor market outcomes.

Since the 2007 inception of the ASAP model, many colleges around the country have replicated the successful program; MDRC is conducting evaluations of three of these replications, described below.

ASAP Ohio Demonstration

In the first of many ASAP replications, MDRC and CUNY partnered in 2015 to launch the ASAP Ohio Demonstration, an effort to determine whether CUNY ASAP could be successfully implemented at community colleges in Ohio. Three Ohio community colleges—Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Cuyahoga Community College, and Lorain County Community College—operated their own programs based on the CUNY ASAP model. MDRC conducted a random assignment evaluation to examine the implementation, cost, and impacts of the effort, which demonstrated that ASAP in Ohio nearly doubled three-year graduation rates and led to an increase in transfers to four-year colleges, mirroring the impacts achieved in the original CUNY program. Additionally, the Ohio programs had positive effects for various types of students, including those who entered with and without developmental education requirements, suggesting that the model’s comprehensive support can be implemented in various settings and help students with different needs.

MDRC is currently conducting long-term follow-up to examine impacts on academic outcomes and labor market outcomes through ten years. In an April 2023 report presenting the first experimental estimates of the effects of the ASAP model on employment and earnings, MDRC found that after six years, students in the program group experienced a 15 percentage point increase in graduation rates and an 11 percent increase in annual earnings.

Viking ROADS

In 2018, Westchester Community College (WCC) in New York State launched Viking ROADS (Resources for Obtaining Associate Degrees and Success), a student support program based closely on the ASAP model. MDRC is conducting a randomized controlled trial of the Viking ROADS. The study took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, which had various implications for the program and the resulting findings. Students who began the study in fall 2019 were required to adapt to remote learning after one semester, while the students starting in fall 2020 and spring 2021 joined the study at a time when classes and student supports were available almost exclusively online. In-person classes did not resume until fall 2021 and, even after in-person classes were available, the majority of students continued to opt for a combination of real-time and asynchronous online classes.

Despite the pandemic, the program was found to have positive effects on enrollment and credit attainment during the first year of the program — findings that align with the CUNY ASAP and Ohio replication findings. A report with three-year findings, including graduation rates, will be released in 2024.

Part-Time SAIL

In two-year colleges, part-time enrollment is often more common than full-time enrollment: 63 percent of degree-seeking students at two-year institutions attend part time. Part-time enrollment is especially common among low-income students, students of color, students who are parents, adults, and others who balance work and family responsibilities while in school. With less than a third of part-time students successfully graduating from two-year colleges, there is great need to learn “what works” for part-time students to help them accumulate credits and graduate.

Lorain County Community College (LCCC) is one of the three colleges in Ohio to adapt, implement, and evaluate the ASAP model in partnership with CUNY and MDRC. LCCC has successfully sustained that program since 2015. Due to the unprecedented effects seen in the New York and Ohio ASAP programs, CUNY, MDRC, and LCCC launched in 2020 the Part-Time Student Accelerating in Learning (SAIL) comprehensive program at LCCC, an effort to determine whether the ASAP model can be adapted for part-time students. Study recruitment concluded in spring 2024 and a report with four-year findings will be published in 2029.