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It was a slow news week in EdTech—almost as if the sector was holding its breath waiting for ASU+GSV to kick off (which it does today, starting with the pre-conference AI Show). But what did I read?
Student success ASAP
We’ve previously written about the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), pioneered by the City University of New York (CUNY) and partially funded by Arnold Ventures (AV). MDRC recently released an evaluation of one effort to scale the program beyond CUNY, this time at Westchester Community College (WCC) in the State University of New York (SUNY) system.
CUNY and Arnold Ventures helped launch the ASAP program at WCC in 2018, providing technical assistance and funding, respectively.
As a reminder, ASAP programs offer selected students a comprehensive range of support services.
• Student support: Students have access to a dedicated academic counselor, tutoring services, career services, and a summer program orientation.
• Financial support: Students receive a scholarship that covers the gap between grant aid and tuition and fees, a monthly transportation voucher, and an annual textbook stipend of $500.
• Specialized course enrollment: Specialized enrollment options include reserved seats in select first-year courses.
To measure the program’s impact, MDRC compared the performance of ASAP students with a control group of similar students who were not in the program. As expected, the results are impressive: students in the ASAP program remained enrolled at higher rates than their non-ASAP peers—though this effect diminishes after four semesters.
MDRC explains the fall off in enrollment rates.
