Nationwide, graduation rates at community colleges are discouragingly low. This randomized experiment provides evidence that graduation rates can be increased dramatically. The City University of New York’s (CUNY) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) is a comprehensive, integrated, three-year program that has an estimated 18 percentage point effect on three-year graduation rates, increases six-year graduation rates by an estimated 10 percentage points, and helps students graduate more quickly. Graduation effect estimates of this magnitude are exceptional in randomized experiments conducted in higher education, offering hope of what is possible when serving low-income students. The long-term follow-up study of CUNY ASAP, presented in this paper, was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant No.R305A160273 to MDRC. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education. We are very appreciative of the Institute’s generous support. DRAFT: DO NOT CITE OR CIRCULATE WITHOUT AUTHORS’ PERMISSION 1 Over the last 40 years the proportion of jobs that require postsecondary education has doubled, and labor market demands for educated workers are expected to continue to grow (Carnevale, Jayasundera, and Gulish 2016; Carnevale, Smith, and Strohl 2010). A college degree not only helps one to get a job; degree-holders also earn higher wages and experience greater socioeconomic mobility (Chetty et al. 2017; Kena et al. 2016; Scott-Clayton and Wen 2017). Despite the significant economic returns to higher education, rates of degree attainment are disappointingly low, particularly among community college students. National statistics indicate that among first-time, full-time students whose first postsecondary school is a two-year public institution, only 23 percent earn a degree or certificate within three years and only 44 percent earn a degree or certificate within six years (U.S. Department of Education 2012). Numerous reforms have been tried to improve community college students’ rates of persistence and completion (Hatch 2016). These often include one or a few components aimed at specific barriers to academic success, and they typically last one or two semesters. Although some of these programs have been found to improve students’ academic outcomes in the short term, few have been found to affect graduation rates substantially. In contrast, one program has been found to increase graduation rates considerably. This paper examines the effects of a comprehensive, integrated, three-year program serving low-income community college students requiring remedial courses. The program requires students to attend college full time and encourages them to take remedial courses early and to graduate within three years. Students receive frequent advisement from an adviser with a small caseload and experience enhanced career services and tutoring. Financial supports, including a tuition waiver and free use of textbooks, alleviate students’ financial need, as does a monthly transportation benefit, which is contingent on participation in key program services. Students can also enroll in courses with other program students in convenient schedules. This paper presents results from a randomized controlled trial evaluating this program’s impact on students’ academic progress and success. The program produces substantial positive impacts on retention and credit accumulation, has an estimated 18 percentage point effect on three-year graduation rates, increases six-year graduation rates by an estimated 10 percentage points, and helps students graduate more quickly. DRAFT: DO NOT CITE OR CIRCULATE WITHOUT AUTHORS’ PERMISSION 2 I. Background and Program Description Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), created and implemented by the City University of New York (CUNY), is an uncommonly comprehensive and long-term program intended to help more students graduate within three years and help students graduate more quickly than they otherwise would. Launched in 2007 with funding from the New York City Center for Economic Opportunity, ASAP began at six community colleges and has now been implemented at nine CUNY institutions offering associate’s degrees. ASAP is designed to simultaneously address multiple potential barriers to student success and to address them over the course of three years, or 150 percent of the “typical” time required for an associate degree. Below, we review the literature on barriers to college success for low-income students, then describe the CUNY ASAP intervention, evaluation, and study sample. 1 A. Background and Barriers to Academic Success Community colleges, with their open admissions policies and relatively low costs, represent a highly accessible pathway for low-income individuals to earn a postsecondary credential. As noted above, however, graduation rates from community colleges are very low, with only 23 percent of first-time, full-time students whose first postsecondary school is a two-year public institution graduating within three years (U.S. Department of Education 2012). Moreover, a majority of students take longer to complete their degrees than is considered “normal”—that is, two years for an associate’s degree (Snyder and Dillow 2015). The consequences of this increased time to degree are considerable; the longer it takes a student to graduate, the more likely it is that she or he will encounter personal or financial difficulties that will make it necessary to drop courses, take time off, or stop college altogether. In addition, the longer students remain in postsecondary education before receiving a degree, the longer they will continue falling below their earnings potential. Scholars have identified a number of student-level challenges and institutional practices that help explain the low rates of persistence and completion at community colleges (for overviews, 1 Note that the ASAP intervention described in this section reflects the model from 2010 to 2013, corresponding to the program experienced by the cohorts of students in this evaluation. The program has since grown dramatically and been adapted to serve larger numbers of students, as described in the final section of this paper. For more detail on the program model, see Boykin and Prince (2015). DRAFT: DO NOT CITE OR CIRCULATE WITHOUT AUTHORS’ PERMISSION 3 see Baum, Kurose, and McPherson 2013; Braxton 2002; Calcagno et al. 2008). While it is beyond the scope of this paper to review all the barriers described in the literature, we provide a brief overview of several notable barriers that are directly addressed by CUNY ASAP, including insufficient preparation for college-level work; a shortage and underutilization of student support services; financial challenges, such as the costs of attending college; and the competing demands of work, family, and school. All of these challenges are especially pronounced for low-income, academically underprepared students, such as the ones in this study. These students are less likely to enroll in school full time every semester, which makes it more difficult for them to accumulate enough credits to stay on track for a timely graduation and makes it less likely they will persist from semester to semester (Attewell, Heil, and Reisel 2012; Crosta 2014; Klempin 2014). Large proportions of low-income community college students are referred to remedial coursework, which is associated with poor college performance (Bailey, Jeong, and Cho 2010; Bound, Lovenheim, and Turner 2009; Chen and Simone 2016). In fact, fewer than half of students who test into remedial courses complete the remedial sequence to which they are referred (Bailey, Jeong, and Cho 2010). There is some evidence that ensuring academically underprepared students pass remedial courses early can improve postsecondary outcomes (Long and Boatman 2013; Scott-Clayton and Rodriguez 2012). A wide variety of reforms have been tried, but underpreparedness remains a significant barrier to students’ academic success (Rutschow and Schneider 2011). Even before experiencing academic challenges, many low-income community college students struggle navigating an unfamiliar college environment. This challenge may be particularly acute for first-generation college-goers, who are disproportionately represented at two-year colleges compared with four-year colleges (Deil-Amen 2011; Person, Rosenbaum, and Deil-Amen 2006). Upon enrolling in school, many community college students need help figuring out which courses to take and in what order, how to register for classes and apply for financial aid, and what resources are available to help make the transition to college (Bailey, Jaggars, and Jenkins 2015; Karp 2016; Kolenovic, Linderman, and Karp 2013). Unfortunately, community colleges are rarely able to support the kind of personalized and timely advising that students need (Bound and Turner 2007). The National Academic Advising Association estimates that the median DRAFT: DO NOT CITE OR CIRCULATE WITHOUT AUTHORS’ PERMISSION 4 caseload of an adviser at a public two-year colleges is 441 students per adviser—severely limiting the amount of advising students receive. (At CUNY colleges, the caseload is estimated to be higher.) A fairly robust experimental literature on enhanced academic advising interventions finds positive causal effects on students’ academic outcomes using a variety of modes of advising (for examples, see Bailey et al. 2016; Bettinger and Baker 2014; Scrivener and Weiss 2009). Finances also present a significant barrier to success for students, even those receiving needbased financial aid. Although tuition and fees at community colleges are about one-third the cost of public four-year colleges and universities, they still constitute a substantial investment for many low-income students, especially when opportunity costs are consid

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支持社区大学生从开始到完成学位：来自 CUNY ASAP 随机试验的长期证据

在全国范围内，社区大学的毕业率低得令人沮丧。这个随机实验提供了毕业率可以显着提高的证据。纽约市立大学 (CUNY) 的副学士课程加速研究 (ASAP) 是一项综合性、综合性的三年制课程，估计对三年毕业率有 18 个百分点的影响，使六年毕业率提高了估计 10 个百分点，并帮助学生更快地毕业。这种规模的毕业效应估计在高等教育中进行的随机实验中是例外的，这为为低收入学生提供服务提供了希望。本文介绍的 CUNY ASAP 长期跟踪研究得到了美国教育部教育科学研究所的支持，通过授予 MDRC 编号 R305A160273。所表达的观点是作者的观点，不代表研究所或美国教育部的观点。我们非常感谢研究所的慷慨支持。草案：未经作者许可，请勿引用或传播 1 在过去 40 年中，需要接受高等教育的工作比例翻了一番，劳动力市场对受过教育的工人的需求预计将继续增长（Carnevale、Jayasundera 和 Gulish，2016 年； Carnevale、Smith 和 Strohl 2010）。大学学位不仅可以帮助人们找到工作；学位持有者的工资也更高，社会经济流动性也更大（Chetty 等人，2017 年；Kena 等人，2016 年；Scott-Clayton 和 Wen，2017 年）。尽管高等教育带来了显着的经济回报，学位获得率低得令人失望，尤其是在社区大学生中。国家统计数据表明，在第一所中学为两年制公立机构的全日制学生中，只有 23% 在三年内获得学位或证书，只有 44% 在六年内获得学位或证书（美国）教育部 2012 年）。已经尝试了许多改革来提高社区大学生的坚持率和完成率（Hatch 2016）。这些通常包括一个或几个针对学业成功的特定障碍的组成部分，它们通常持续一到两个学期。虽然这些项目中的一些已被发现可以在短期内提高学生的学业成绩，但几乎没有发现对毕业率产生重大影响。相比之下，已发现一项计划可显着提高毕业率。本文考察了一项为需要补习课程的低收入社区大学生提供的综合性、综合性、三年期计划的效果。该计划要求学生全日制上大学，并鼓励他们尽早参加补习课程并在三年内毕业。学生会经常收到顾问的建议，顾问的案例量很小，并且可以体验增强的职业服务和辅导。财政支持，包括学费减免和免费使用教科书，减轻了学生的经济需求，每月交通津贴也是如此，这取决于参与关键计划服务。学生还可以在方便的时间安排与其他课程的学生一起注册课程。本文介绍了一项随机对照试验的结果，该试验评估了该计划对学生学业进步和成功的影响。该计划对保留和学分积累产生了重大的积极影响，对三年毕业率估计有 18 个百分点的影响，估计将六年毕业率提高了 10 个百分点，并帮助学生更快毕业。草案：未经作者许可，请勿引用或传播 2 I. 背景和计划说明 由纽约城市大学 (CUNY) 创建和实施的 Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) 是一项非常全面的长期计划旨在帮助更多的学生在三年内毕业，并帮助学生更快地毕业。ASAP 于 2007 年在纽约市经济机会中心的资助下启动，从六所社区学院开始，现已在九所提供副学士学位的纽约市立大学机构实施。ASAP 旨在同时解决学生成功的多个潜在障碍，并在三年内解决这些问题，即副学士学位所需“典型”时间的 150%。下面，我们回顾了有关低收入学生大学成功障碍的文献，然后描述了 CUNY ASAP 干预、评估和研究样本。1 A. 学术成功的背景和障碍 社区学院的招生政策开放且成本相对较低，是低收入个人获得高等教育证书的一种非常容易获得的途径。然而，如上所述，社区学院的毕业率非常低，只有 23% 的第一次全日制学生在三年内毕业（美国教育部 2012）。此外，大多数学生完成学位所需的时间比“正常”时间更长——即获得副学士学位需要两年时间（Snyder 和 Dillow，2015 年）。这种增加时间的后果是相当大的。学生毕业所需的时间越长，她或他就越有可能遇到个人或经济困难，从而有必要放弃课程、请假或完全停止上大学。此外，学生在获得学位之前接受高等教育的时间越长，他们将继续低于其盈利潜力的时间越长。学者们已经确定了许多学生层面的挑战和制度实践，这些挑战和制度实践有助于解释社区大学的坚持率和完成率低（作为概述，1 注意本节中描述的 ASAP 干预反映了 2010 年至 2013 年的模型，对应学生在本次评估中所体验的项目。该项目自那时起已显着发展并经过调整以服务更多的学生，如本文最后一节所述。有关项目模型的更多详细信息，请参阅博伊金和普林斯(2015). 草案：未经作者许可不得引用或传播 3 参见 Baum、Kurose 和 McPherson 2013；Braxton 2002；Calcagno 等人 2008）。虽然回顾文献中描述的所有障碍超出了本文的范围，但我们简要概述了 CUNY ASAP 直接解决的几个显着障碍，包括大学水平的工作准备不足；学生支持服务的短缺和利用不足；财务挑战，例如上大学的费用；以及工作、家庭和学校的竞争需求。所有这些挑战对于低收入、学业准备不足的学生来说尤其明显，例如本研究中的学生。这些学生每学期都不太可能全日制上学，这使他们更难积累足够的学分以按时毕业，并且不太可能坚持一个学期到一个学期（Attewell，Heil，和 Reisel 2012；克罗斯塔 2014；克伦平 2014 年）。大量低收入社区大学生被转介到补习课程，这与大学表现不佳有关（Bailey、Jeong 和 Cho 2010；Bound、Lovenheim 和 Turner 2009；Chen 和 Simone 2016）。事实上，参加补习课程的学生中，只有不到一半完成了他们所提到的补习序列（Bailey、Jeong 和 Cho 2010）。有证据表明，确保学业准备不足的学生尽早通过补习课程可以提高中学后的成绩（Long 和 Boatman 2013；Scott-Clayton 和 Rodriguez 2012）。已经尝试了各种各样的改革，但准备不足仍然是学生学业成功的重大障碍（Rutschow 和 Schneider 2011）。甚至在遇到学术挑战之前，许多低收入社区大学生在陌生的大学环境中挣扎。对于第一代大学生来说，这一挑战可能尤为严峻，与四年制大学相比，两年制大学的人数不成比例（Deil-Amen 2011；Person、Rosenbaum 和 Deil-Amen 2006）。入学后，许多社区大学的学生需要帮助确定要参加哪些课程和顺序，如何注册课程和申请经济援助，以及有哪些资源可以帮助他们过渡到大学（Bailey、Jaggars、和 Jenkins 2015；Karp 2016；Kolenovic、Linderman 和 Karp 2013）。不幸的是，社区大学很少能够支持学生需要的个性化和及时的建议（Bound and Turner 2007）。全国学术咨询协会估计，草案的中位数：未经作者许可，请勿引用或传播 4 公立两年制大学顾问的案例量为每位顾问 441 名学生 - 严重限制了学生接受的建议数量。（在纽约市立大学，案件量估计更高。）关于加强学术咨询干预的相当强大的实验文献发现，使用各种咨询模式对学生的学业成果产生积极的因果影响（例如，参见 Bailey 等人，2016 年） ；Bettinger 和 Baker 2014；Scrivener 和 Weiss 2009）。财务状况也是学生取得成功的一大障碍，即使是那些接受基于需求的经济援助的学生。虽然社区学院的学杂费约为公立四年制学院和大学的三分之一，