Skyline College is preparing to launch an innovative program that has been proven to help students graduate at higher rates and more quickly than most community college students. The Accelerated Studies in Associate Program (aptly referred to as ASAP) will launch in fall 2018 with 500 full-time Skyline College students. ASAP consists of financial support, intensive academic advising, expedited course scheduling and other advantages for students.
“Skyline College is looking for ways to ensure that students get into college, get through and get out on time,” said Skyline College President Regina Stanback Stroud. “The ASAP model has been proven to improve graduation rates and student transfer rates into four-year universities, so we want to bring this benefit to Skyline College students.”
ASAP was developed by the City University of New York (CUNY) in 2007, featuring a package of scholarships, intensified academic advising and other supports that more than doubled the graduation rate of its students. It has been able to sustain these remarkable results in the years since, and it has been replicated at community colleges in Ohio.
Now this innovative program is being piloted in the San Francisco Bay Area at Skyline College. The College will replicate CUNY’s ASAP program with an initial cohort of 500 full-time students in fall 2018. This will be the first ASAP program in the nation to operate at scale, serving all new full-time students.
ASAP at Skyline College is supported in part by an $836,607 grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which is funding the replication process through staffing and technical assistance from CUNY over a period of two years. The program is expected to cost about $750,000 per each year and will be funded through a variety of state and local grants, College funds and private donations.
ASAP consists of four critical components:
Enrollment
- Students must enroll full-time
- Students are limited to two developmental education courses (remedial courses designed to bring the student up to college-level work)
- Optional summer and winter sessions
Student Support
- Priority registration
- Intensive academic advising (including two mandatory meetings per month in the first semester)
- Career services workshops
- Student peer mentorship program
Academics
- Block course scheduling and consolidated schedules
- New meta-majors and guided pathways with general education courses that satisfy requirements for multiple majors
- Mandatory tutoring for developmental education courses
- Online learning community
Financial Incentives
- Skyline Promise Scholarship (pays up to the full fees for the first year of college)
- Monthly food voucher
- Free textbooks and materials from lending library
- Laptops and tablets available
ASAP is part of the Skyline College Promise—a comprehensive strategy of scholarships, academic programs and a restructuring of majors and curriculum designed to remove barriers to student success. Highlights of the Skyline College Promise are:
- The Promise Scholarship, a “last-dollar” scholarship that covers tuition and provides books for the first year of college
- Summer Scholars Institute, a five-week accelerator program that includes counseling in doing college-level work, as well as college-level math and English courses
- ASAP (beginning in fall 2018), a package of financial support, academic advising and support services designed to improve three-year graduation rates
Skyline College’s ASAP is in development and planning during 2017-18 and will be available to any incoming full-time students beginning with the fall 2018 semester. Details on ASAP will be available on the Office of Admissions website in spring 2018.
Article by Richard Rojo
