Public community colleges are often hailed as engines of economic and social mobility for low- and middle-income students, as they tend to be more accessible and less expensive than their four-year and private counterparts.

But the completion rate at two-year public institutions is low. Among community college students who first enrolled in 2016, 43.1% graduated within six years, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.....

.....Beginning in 2014, three of Ohio’s community colleges worked with their state’s higher education department, the research firm MDRC and CUNY to customize and implement a version of the system’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, or ASAP, which focuses on comprehensive advising and financial support.....

.....“As with any very successful program, the next question is, does it work elsewhere? Can we scale it? Can we replicate that?” said Colin Hill, postsecondary education research analyst at MDRC. “This is particularly important given that CUNY is pretty unique as an extremely large system in an extremely large city.”