An Ohio experiment boosted graduation rates and earnings for community college students. Here’s how.


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Public community colleges are often hailed as engines of economic and social mobility for low- and middle-income students, as they tend to be more accessible and less expensive than their four-year and private counterparts.

But the completion rate at two-year public institutions is low. Among community college students who first enrolled in 2016, 43.1% graduated within six years, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. That’s compared to 68% of students at public four-year institutions and the national average of 62.3% for all types of colleges.

Efforts are underway to shrink the completion rate gap between community colleges and other institutions. An experiment in Ohio has done just that by adapting a completion program originally established 600 miles away for the City University of New York system.

Beginning in 2014, three of Ohio’s community colleges worked with their state’s higher education department, the research firm MDRC and CUNY to customize and implement a version of the system’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, or ASAP, which focuses on comprehensive advising and financial support.

The original CUNY ASAP is an oft-cited student success story in higher education. Students within the 16-year-old program have been found to graduate within three years at double the rate of students who aren’t in CUNY ASAP.

“As with any very successful program, the next question is, does it work elsewhere? Can we scale it? Can we replicate that?” said Colin Hill, postsecondary education research analyst at MDRC. “This is particularly important given that CUNY is pretty unique as an extremely large system in an extremely large city.”

A recent study of 1,500 Ohio community college students suggested the success could be replicated. 

After six years, students in Ohio’s version of ASAP were more likely than their non-ASAP peers to earn a degree, enroll in a four-year college and have higher average earnings, according to a report from MDRC. What’s more, researchers are optimistic that ASAP can be customized to different regions while still maintaining the original’s strong student outcomes.

Benefits and eligibility

Through Ohio ASAP, three colleges — Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Cuyahoga Community College, and Lorain County Community College — offered eligible students up to three years of academic and financial support services.

ASAP students gained access to proactive advising, personalized career counseling services, and tutoring opportunities. They also received help paying for textbooks and got monthly $50 gift cards to put toward groceries and gas. 

That last feature is an enticing offer, as it addresses the challenges students often face outside of the classroom, Hill said.

“Many community college students are balancing competing priorities of family or work,” he said. “That extra boost each month can help them cover loose ends and focus on school a little more.”

But while the financial incentive may have gotten people in the door, Hill said students quickly saw the value of the other program benefits.

“Once they start meeting with the adviser and start engaging with the communities in these programs, that is what keeps them there,” he said.

To qualify for Ohio ASAP, students had to be seeking a degree, willing to enroll full time in a three-year program and eligible for federal Pell Grants. Pell eligibility is often used as a rough proxy for low-income status. 

To determine the program’s efficacy, researchers randomly divided the students into groups that would either receive the support services or not. 

Spread over three cohorts — spring 2015, fall 2015 and spring 2016 — just over 1,500 students participated in the study. 



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Laura Spitalniak

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