Report shows wraparound services' impact on community college student success

Another study offers evidence that wraparound supports for community college students can improve their chances of persisting, in this case nearly doubling their retention to the next term and leading to a 35% increase in full-time enrollment. Preliminary results from an eight-year study by the University of Chicago Poverty Lab show the impact of academic, personal and financial supports from the nonprofit One Million Degrees (OMD) on some 730 students in Chicago-area community colleges. Those include regular meetings with a counselor, a performance-based stipend and last-dollar scholarships.High school students who accepted the offer to participate with OMD were about 27% more likely to enroll in college and 35% more likely to do so full-time than students in a control group. The majority of participants were African American or Hispanic, and half worked at least part-time. OMD's battery of services is similar to that of the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) initiative from the City University of New York, which has been duplicated elsewhere. ASAP provides advising from counselors with low caseloads, and it offers financial support for tuition and other expenses, summer enrollment opportunities, consolidated course schedules and job placement services. It also structures some remedial classes in a way that reduces students' time and financial burden.