Low-income and first-generation students enroll in and complete college at much lower rates than their more advantaged peers. This is particularly problematic because of the strong link between educational attainment and subsequent earnings, underscoring the need to find effective strategies that promote persistence and degree attainment.
We profile two such programs that are making an important difference, as shown by rigorous program evaluations. They are the City University of New York’s (CUNY’s) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) and the Dell Scholars program. We are joined by two researchers who helped lead the respective evaluations of these programs. Lindsay Page (@linzcpage) is a professor at the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh and Michael Weiss (@MDRC_News) is a Senior Associate at MDRC.
Additional resources: Learn more by accessing MDRC’s reports on CUNY ASAP [click here] and the study of the Dell Scholars Program by Lindsay Page and her co-authors, Stacy Kehoe, Benjamin Castleman and Gumilang Sahadewo [click here].