BY: AIF Staff
In 2024, as part of its ongoing work to help organizations develop evidence-based approaches to fighting poverty and expanding economic opportunities, the American Idea Foundation provided financial support and technical expertise to 8 groups across the United States.
These organizations, all of whom operate on the frontlines of communities in-need, are led by policy entrepreneurs, problem-solvers, and innovators who are determined to solve some of our nation’s most challenging problems. Whether focusing on childhood literacy or helping veterans obtain careers in STEM-fields, each of the American Idea Foundation’s grant recipients are bright lights in our communities, helping people realize their full potential every, single day.
Even more impressive, these groups are putting data and evidence at the forefront of their approaches. They are undergoing rigorous evaluations to improve their methods and refine their programming so they can make an even more profound impact going forward. Speaker Ryan believes, as these organizations do, by using evidence to inform best practices and by scaling successful interventions, America will finally be successful in attacking the root causes of poverty.
One example of an organization helping their community in an evidence-based way is ACE – CUNY (Accelerate, Complete & Engage – City University of New York)
Launched in 2007, CUNY’s Accelerated Study program provides students with access to higher education through New York City universities and assists them throughout their collegiate journey by providing a comprehensive suite of financial, academic, and personal services. The end goal of CUNY’s Accelerated programs is to ensure students facing systemic barriers to higher education complete an Associated program from the City University of New York system.
ACE-CUNY does this by providing financial services to full-time students in the form of tuition waivers, funding for textbooks, and transportation subsidies so they are able to enter college and stay on track to graduation. ACE-CUNY also provides a structured pathway through college via flexible class schedules and by providing students with qualified academic advisors who guide their progress. The program offers tutors, a community of peers to learn from, and career development opportunities for enrolled students.
The ACE-CUNY program was initially funded by Robin Hood as a pilot project at John Jay College of New York. An initial study conducted in 2015 using a randomized assignment of 900 students produced promising results as the first two cohorts of ACE-CUNY students saw an 18% boost in on-time, four-year graduation rates when compared to non-enrolled students. These initial findings allowed for the ACE-CUNY model to be scaled and it is now utilized at six other colleges within the New York system.
An early Cost-Benefit Analysis of ACE – CUNY was equally encouraging from an affordability standpoint. Researchers concluded that:
- For each dollar of investment in ASAP by taxpayers, the return was between three and four dollars….
- When converted into overall benefits generated by the 1,000 enrollees, the considerably higher productivity of ASAP in producing associate degrees would provide fiscal benefits to the taxpayers of $46 million dollars beyond those of investing an approximately equal amount in the conventional degree program.
- Although the program costs per student were greater, the increase in the number of three-year graduates was so substantial that the cost per completed degree for ACE – CUNY students was about $6,500 less than for the comparison group.
A 2022 quasi-experimental study at John Jay College found the following:
- ACE students had higher retention rates than comparison group students each semester and the gap between the groups grew over time. Additionally, ACE students also enrolled in summer and winter classes at a higher rate than non-enrolled peers.
- Participation in ACE had a large early effect on being on-track to on-time graduation. The experiment found ACE helped narrow gaps between Black and Hispanic students and White students in terms of on-time graduation rates.
A 2023 assessment by John Jay College also found the ACE program had a statistically significant positive impact on the likelihood of graduating with a bachelor’s degree within four years.
The study found participating ACE students had a 58.8% graduation rate compared with 46.4% in the control group, a nearly 12.5% difference. Further, the study found that demographic subgroups – specifically female students, Hispanic students, and Pell-grant eligible recipients — benefitted significantly after participating in the ACE program.
Conducted earlier this year, a CUNY assessment affirmed many previous research findings. Among them:
- ACE students were estimated to graduate at a rate of 68.8%, higher than the control group rate of 57.1%, a difference of 11.7 percentage points.
- ACE – CUNY students graduated within three years at more than double the rate of non-enrolled students.
- ACE – CUNY students are more likely to earn a degree. Six years after beginning, 63.6% of enrolled first-time freshmen had earned either an associate or baccalaureate degree (or both) versus 43.3% of comparison group students.
In addition to Bottom Line, one of AIF’s 2023 grantees, ACE – CUNY is one of two models to produce sizable gains in the likelihood that students earn a bachelor’s degree. It does so by focusing on three specific areas: “integration and belonging, timely and relevant support, and academic momentum. Advocates of the CUNY-ACE program believe their wrap-around model works because it addresses the holistic needs of students rather than focusing on their isolated individual needs.”
Ultimately, it’s a win-win type program. As the Center for an Urban Future summarized, ACE-CUNY is “helping students save money by completing their degrees more quickly, maximizing the state’s investment in subsidized tuition by boosting completion rates, and strengthening New York’s economy by raising earnings and growing the tax base.”
Because of their success and because of the supporting evidence, Inside Higher Education noted that the ACE-CUNY “system now has a team dedicated to helping other institutions, that are part of a network called ASAP|ACE National Replication Collaborative, and that are developing their own versions of these programs.” College administrators in California, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina are all seeking to develop similar models to ACE-CUNY.
ACE-CUNY has a goal of serving 25,000 students annually and graduating 50% of these students within 3 years. It’s ambitious but based on the evidence, the program is well on its way to helping educate America’s future leaders and providing more economic opportunities by helping students earn a college degree.
To learn more about AIF’s 2024 grant recipients, click here.