AMERICAN students are enrolling in college in record numbers, but they’re also dropping out in droves. Barely half of those who start four-year colleges, and only a third of community college students, graduate. That’s one of the worst records among developed nations, and it’s a substantial drain on the economy. The American Institutes for Research estimates the cost of those dropouts, measured in lost earnings and taxes, at $4.5 billion. Incalculable are the lost opportunities for social mobility and the stillborn professional careers.

There’s a remedy at hand, though, and it’s pretty straightforward.....

.....Over the past month, CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) has garnered hosannas in the media for its package of comprehensive financial resources, student support systems and impressive graduation rates. The social policy leader MDRC is conducting a multiyear random-assignment study of ASAP and, in a just-released report, describes it as “unparalleled in large-scale experimental evaluations of programs in higher education to date.”....

.....Six years ago, CUNY decided to confront the high dropout rate at its community colleges with the ASAP initiative. The results are stunning: 56 percent of the first two cohorts of more than 1,500 students have graduated, compared with just 23 percent of a comparable group that didn’t have the same experience. What’s more, most of those graduates are currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree.....

.....An evaluation last year by the economist Henry M. Levin, a co-director of Teachers College, Columbia University’s Center for Benefit-Cost Studies in Education, and Emma García, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., concludes that although ASAP isn’t cheap ... it’s a solid investment for New York City’s taxpayers. Dr. Levin and Dr. García calculate that the total lifetime benefits — from increased tax revenues as well as savings in crime, welfare and health costs — are a whopping $205,514 per associate degree graduate.

These results have persuaded CUNY to triple the size of the community college program to 4,000 students by fall 2014, and the system is considering expanding ASAP to its other schools. But this strategy merits a nationwide rollout, for it promises a significant increase in the number of educated workers that the nation badly needs.

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