Back in 2015, three Ohio community colleges launched the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), a comprehensive suite of supports meant to help new community college students persist in school and complete a degree in three years or less (the national average was 3.3 years at the time). ASAP is based on a similar program of the same name developed in the City University of New York (CUNY) system. It includes supports such as tuition and transportation assistance, work- and family-friendly class schedules, priority registration, and intensive advising from dedicated counselors.
While just two of those Ohio programs remain active today, evaluation partner MDRC has continued tracking longer term outcomes for the original participants via a randomized controlled trial. I have reviewed three of MDRC’s previous studies (the third one, covering six years of data and with links to the others in the series, is here), and a fourth report has just been released, covering eight years of data since the start of the program.
To recap the study design: Participating students enrolling in the three Ohio institutions in fall 2015 had to be degree-seeking, willing to attend full-time, majoring in degree programs that could be completed in three years or less, and Pell Grant–eligible. A lottery determined which students entered the ASAP program (806 participants) and which comprised the control group (695 non-participants). Students in the control group had access to the usual suite of assistance services the colleges provided but not the more-intensive support given students in the treatment group.
Before looking at the new report, let’s do a quick recap of findings from the prior reports in the series. After three years, 35 percent of the students in the treatment group had earned degrees, compared with 19 percent of students in the control group. Graduation impacts persisted in year six. And the labor market findings revealed that program group students earned $2,045 more than control group students’ annual average of $17,631—an increase of 12 percent.
And now? As of 2023 (eight years after initially enrolling), 46 percent of program participants earned a degree compared to 31 percent of control group students, an estimated 15 percentage point effect. And while one could argue that the goal of accelerated degree completion has been irrelevant for a while now, the fact that the positive impact has remained steady for all this time—that is, the control group has not caught up or, indeed, made any headway in closing the gap—suggests that some students are still earning degrees they otherwise would not have without the supports, even if it took them eight years to earn that “two-year degree.” Overall, ASAP appears to be one of the most effective postsecondary education initiatives in regard to graduation-rate increases among the numerous other rigorously-evaluated programs cited by the researchers. Furthermore, 17.6 percent of program participants have gone on to earn a bachelor’s degree within eight years of starting community college with ASAP support, compared with 11.4 percent of control group students. That’s a 6.2 percentage point impact.
Labor market findings also remain positive. In year eight, program participants earned an average of $3,337 more than the control group, a 14 percent increase that is larger than the one observed at the six-year point. In fact, the impact on earnings has been gradually increasing since year four. This effect was due almost entirely to higher wages being earned by the treatment group participants, as both they and control participants were employed at similar rates, as had been seen in previous analyses.
It is unclear what more can be learned from these long-term participants, but MDRC researchers promise to keep further tabs on their OG guinea pigs. Of more interest will likely be the expanded usage of the ASAP model now active at over forty institutions in seven states, including a baccalaureate version at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Analyses of each are in the works. Here’s hoping for more good news to come!
SOURCE: Colin Hill, Kayla Warner, and Colleen Sommo, “From Learning to Earning,” MDRC (April 2025).
