A remedial math course was a frustrating way to start her path to an associate degree. “I knew that I needed extra help. I was happy there were resources. What disappointed me was that any effort I was going to put into it wasn’t going to be for anything,” she says, a reference to the fact that remedial courses do not yield any credits toward graduation. “It was depressing. Every time I went, I resented my high school experience.” She wondered why she hadn’t studied math harder. But she hadn’t even had a math course her senior year. As she discusses the course, her irritation pierces her cool demeanor: “I never knew how harshly I was going to be fucked by it.”
Few college systems in the country can boast the history and scope that define CUNY, which traces its roots to 1847, serves probably the world’s most diverse student population, caters to a quarter-million students and manages a network of 21 campuses—which include community, comprehensive and senior colleges as well as graduate facilities—across five counties.
But for all that CUNY does, one thing it does not do well is graduating students seeking associate degrees, the foot-in-the-door credential that is the bread and butter of community colleges. The three-year graduation rate of students who entered in the fall of 2006 was 10 percent, barely distinguishable from where it was in 1999, at 9.8 percent. While some of those who don’t graduate on time remain with the school and keep trying, six in 10 do not.
Community colleges, where students usually pursue associate degrees, are the new “it” topic of education circles. During the 2009 mayoral campaign, Bloomberg pledged to give $50 million in additional funding to the CUNY community colleges. Last summer, President Obama promised new federal money to community colleges through the American Graduation Initiative, which he called “the most significant down payment yet on reaching the goal of having the highest college graduation rate of any nation in the world.”
CUNY’s community college performance is worse, but not much worse, than the national-average 19 percent graduation rate at three years. Around the country and for decades, community colleges have struggled to get students to graduate. In part this is because their students face unique challenges. “Life is always getting in the way for college students,” says Tom Bailey, director of the Community College Research Center at Columbia’s Teachers College. “A third of community college students have dependents, whether it’s parents or whether it’s children.”
But these days, at least in CUNY’s case, the graduation problem has a new wrinkle, because its incoming students appear to be better prepared.
Most first-time CUNY community college students come from New York City public high schools. And for the past several years, the city’s high school graduation rates—and the share of graduates earning more challenging regents diplomas— have been steadily climbing.
