The MDRC just issued a report on the results of imitating CUNY’s ASAP program at three community colleges in Ohio. The news is good and bad.

ASAP is a wildly successful model pioneered at CUNY in which students are required to attend college on a full-time basis. In return, they get free tuition, free books, free transportation, intensive advising, intensive tutoring and all manner of what we usually call “wraparound services.” It nearly doubled the graduation rate, with lower costs per graduate than the status quo ante.

As with many programs developed in a particular location -- especially one as distinctive as New York City -- people elsewhere often raise a question about portability. Yes, it worked in Brooklyn, but could it work elsewhere? The MDRC report looks at the results of adapted versions of ASAP at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Cuyahoga Community College, and Lorain County Community College...

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