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sustained focus on maintaining strong relationships with advisers. Tracking data from CUNYshows that the vast majority of students continued to have contact with their adviser at leastonce a month.Longer-Term Evaluation of CUNY ASAPASAP’s effects for the sample of students in this random assignment evaluation arevery notable at the three-year point. It is also important to know what happens to these studentsin the longer term, and MDRC hopes to raise funds to continue studying students’ outcomes.ASAP was designed both to increase the proportion of students who receive a degree and tohelp them graduate more quickly. At the three-year point, ASAP may have caused students tograduate who would not have without the program, accelerated graduation for students whowould have done so eventually, or both. Therefore, open questions about academic outcomesinclude the following: Do program group students continue to earn associate’s degrees at highrates? Do control group members begin to catch up in terms of earned associate’s degrees?What are the longer-term effects of ASAP on bachelor’s degrees? It is also important to knowwhat happens to students in the labor market. A college degree is important in part because ofits potential to benefit its recipients in the form of better job opportunities. Finally, the programwas found to be cost-effective in terms of producing graduates at the three-year point. Whenconsidering ASAP’s costs relative to its effects for students, it is important to consider a longertime frame. If a program’s effect on graduation rates changes, its cost-effectiveness may alsochange.Replicating and Evaluating ASAP Outside of CUNYASAP is a highly promising program that merits testing in other settings. It is importantto know whether the comprehensive ASAP program can be successfully implemented by othercolleges, in different contexts with different students, and yield substantial effects. Studyingreplications of ASAP at different colleges would help answer that question and provide informationon how the program can be adapted for settings outside of CUNY and New York City.It would also help show whether ASAP is a cost-effective investment for other colleges.ASAP, with its unprecedented effects for students, has received much attention in thehigher education field, and many colleges have begun exploring whether they might adopt it ora similar model. MDRC is working with CUNY to develop evaluations of ASAP and ASAPlikeprograms at interested colleges to learn more about what might be driving the effects andwhether the program can successfully operate at a lower cost. If the results indicate that ASAP’seffects are consistently positive across institutions outside of CUNY, they may offer decisiveevidence that the model may be effective at most other colleges. If the program’s effects vary by93

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