Doubling community college graduation rates through CUNY’s ASAP program: An interview with Donna Linderman, Dean for Student Success Initiatives, City University of New York – Episode #104

Increasing the graduation rates at community colleges is an important national challenge. Nationally, less than 40 percent of community college students attain a degree or certificate — and students who come to campus underprepared for college-level work (those needing developmental or remedial classes) have graduation rates below 30 percent.

The City University of New York (CUNY) launched the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP (www1.cuny.edu/sites/asap)) in 2007 with the goal of doubling the graduation rates of community college students as well as encouraging timely graduation within three years. A rigorous, random assignment evaluation (mdrc.org/news/press-release/new-study-shows-cu…) by MDRC found that ASAP nearly doubled the percentage of students needing developmental courses that completed an associate’s degree (40% versus 22% for the control group), by far the largest effects MDRC has found for a community college intervention. And CUNY’s own evaluation (www1.cuny.edu/sites/asap/wp-content/uploads/si…) of the overall program (not just for those needing remediation) found that the program more than doubled graduation rates.

To learn more, we’re joined by Donna Linderman (cuny.edu/about/administration/administrators/d…). She is the Dean for Student Success Initiatives at CUNY and the Executive Director of ASAP.

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