CUNY ASAP is a three-year program offering comprehensive student support, financial aid, and structured pathways. The program has served over 100,000 students since 2007 and been replicated across seven states. ASAP's primary goal is to increase the completion of college associate degrees. Specifically, the comprehensive intervention is expected…

In community colleges in the United States, graduation rates remain frustratingly low. Students face many challenges, including the financial costs of attending college; the demands of school, work, and family; complex institutional systems; underfunded student support services; and insufficient preparation for college-level work. To address these…

The Families Forward Demonstration (FFD) examined new strategies to increase the earnings of parents who owe child support but are unable to fully meet their obligations due to low earnings. It also focused on "responsive" child support services that helped parents understand their support obligations, and even suspended certain…

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, home visiting programs were faced with an unprecedented challenge: How do you deliver home visiting services without visiting homes? One home visiting model--Child First--quickly pivoted to telehealth, offering caregivers the option to receive services virtually. Child First has since resumed delivering…

PACE Center for Girls is a Florida-based organization that provides academic and social services to girls of middle school and high school age. Girls who attend PACE have a specific set of characteristics that put them at risk of involvement with the juvenile justice system and other negative outcomes. PACE seeks to reduce the likelihood of…

This paper presents new estimates of the effects of the City University of New York (CUNY) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) model, evaluated using a randomized controlled trial first in New York and later through a replication in Ohio. It describes longer-term effects of CUNY ASAP in New York, showing that the program's effects on…

Open-access colleges are an important pathway to economic mobility for millions of Americans. But graduation rates at these colleges are low--for example, only 36 percent of first-time, full-time freshmen at community colleges graduate within three years. Over the last two decades, MDRC and others have conducted research to build the evidence base…

As the first major effort to use a behavioral economics lens to examine human services programs that serve poor and vulnerable families in the United States, the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project demonstrated the value of applying behavioral insights to improve the efficacy of human services programs. The BIAS…

Postsecondary education is widely seen as a necessity in the modern economy. Yet students at community colleges often face steep odds when it comes to completing a degree. Community colleges serve many low-income and first-generation students as well as students of color, all of whom must contend with many obstacles to success. At the same time,…

Access to college has increased substantially over the last 50 years, but student success--defined as the combination of academic achievement and degree or certificate completion--has largely remained stagnant. The gap between access and success is particularly noteworthy for male Black and Hispanic students, whose college completion rates lag…

The skills and abilities children develop in their earliest years lay the foundation for their future well-being. Likewise, early negative experiences can undermine them in later life. Parents play a central role in shaping their children's development, so helping them overcome their own sources of stress is a powerful way to improve how families…

The nation's community colleges play a central role in producing a more educated workforce and promoting social mobility. They serve about 40 percent of all college students and, not surprisingly, they serve a disproportionate number of low-income and underrepresented students. But most students who enter these colleges do not graduate--only about…

Postsecondary education is widely seen as a necessity in the modern economy. Yet students at community colleges often face steep odds when it comes to completing a degree. Community colleges serve many low-income and first-generation students as well as students of color, all of whom must contend with many obstacles to success. At the same time,…

This report summarizes the findings of a long-term evaluation of Opportunity NYC--Family Rewards, an experimental, privately funded, conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to help families break the cycle of poverty. Family Rewards was the first comprehensive CCT program in a developed country. Launched in 2007 by New York City's Center for…

This brief is the third in a series documenting the implementation of an economic mobility initiative supported by New York City's Change Capital Fund (CCF). CCF is a consortium of New York City donors formed to invest in local nonprofits that undertake data-driven antipoverty strategies integrating housing, education, and employment services. CCF…