Program Data

CUNY Start Enrollment Snapshot – provides a summary of CUNY Start student enrollment and re-enrollment to CUNY following program participation. The snapshot highlights a number of fast facts including initial developmental need, program completion, and participant demographics.

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CUNY Start Program Snapshot – provides a summary of enrollment, program completion, and proficiency gains in reading, writing, and math for students enrolled in CUNY Start in Fall and Spring. The report highlights pass rates in each basic skills area and the number of developmental needs pre- and post-program for students who enrolled full-time.

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Math Start Enrollment Snapshot – provides a summary of Math Start student enrollment and re-enrollment to CUNY following program participation. The snapshot highlights a number of fast facts including initial remedial need, program completion, and participant demographics.

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Math Start Program Snapshot – provides a summary of enrollment, program completion, and proficiency gains in math for students enrolled in Math Start in Summer, Fall, and Spring.

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Research & Impact

Academic Momentum After CUNY Start: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Post Matriculation Outcomes is a CUNY Office of Research, Evaluation, and Program Support (REPS) research brief describing the academic momentum among CUNY Start participants who matriculate at a CUNY college as compared to similar non-CUNY Start peers. The study found positive outcomes in all of the three areas studied: 1) the rate of semester-to-semester retention, 2) credit accumulation, and 3) rate of degree attainment.

COVID-19 Transitions: The Experiences of CUNY Start and Math Start Students and Staff in the Remote Classroom, a CUNY Office of Research, Evaluation, and Program Support (REPS) research brief, presents findings from two distance learning surveys of CUNY Start and Math Start students and staff who were part of the Spring 2020 and Summer 2020 programs. The brief explores the remote learning barriers encountered by students and staff during the early months of the pandemic, and identifies several program elements that were key to ensuring students’ engagement and success.

MDRC’s Report, An On-Ramp to Student Success: A Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluation of a Developmental Education Reform at the City University of New York, details the findings of the MDRC, CCRC, and CUNY study that used a randomized controlled trial of 3,800 students at four CUNY Start campuses. Read More

Student outcomes were evaluated over three years (the program semester and the following five semesters). Findings show CUNY Start substantially increased college readiness, slightly increased credit accumulation, and modestly increased graduation rates (by increasing participation in CUNY’s highly effective ASAP).

A Resource Guide for Reforming Developmental Education in the College Transition Space, is written as a resource that describes CUNY Start, a prematriculation program designed to help students with deep English and math developmental needs meet proficiency milestones.

CCRC Working Paper, How Can We Improve Teaching in Higher Education? Learning From CUNY Start, a working paper from the Community College Research Center (CCRC) which describes the professional development and coaching practices that support CUNY Start’s successful student-centered program. Read More

CCRC’s paper is part of a random assignment evaluation of CUNY Start undertaken with MDRC. Research includes interviews with the program’s instructors and professional developers and assesses the program’s teacher apprenticeship model. The authors also review core pedagogical practices in math and English that define the program’s unique approach to supporting faculty in higher education. Key tenets of the program that can be replicated are summarized for non-CUNY colleges.​

CCRC Working Paper, Teaching Matters and So Does Curriculum: How CUNY Start Reshaped Instruction for Students Referred to Developmental Mathematics is a working paper from the Community College Research Center (CCRC) that is part of an ongoing random assignment evaluation of CUNY Start undertaken with MDRC. Read More

Findings show that the program has significant positive effects on student achieving readiness for college mathematics. Research indicates that CUNY Start’s structure, processes, and resources enable instructors to teach mathematics in a different way that may boost student achievement.

Starting to Succeed: The Impact of CUNY Start on Academic Momentum is a research brief by CUNY Research, Evaluation, and Program Support (REPS) which finds that CUNY Start students are much more likely to enroll in and pass gateway courses in their first year than matched comparison group students. Read More

Findings show impacts are especially strong in math and for students who entered with the greatest developmental needs.

MDRC Report, Becoming College-Ready: Early Findings from a CUNY Start Evaluation (July, 2018) details first and second-semester outcomes for the study groups who were randomly assigned to either CUNY Start or CUNY’s matriculated student pathway. Read More

Early findings indicate that CUNY Start students are making substantially more progress than the control group in passing developmental courses and, after matriculation, in college. CUNY Start is part of a five-year research study that is funded by the US DOE Institute of Education Sciences and being lead by MDRC in partnership with the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University (CCRC), and CUNY.​

CUNY Start: Analysis of Student Outcomes is a comprehensive evaluation of proficiency gains, matriculation rates, and post-secondary outcomes of CUNY Start students as compared to similar students who enrolled directly in a CUNY degree program. Read More

The findings indicate that CUNY Start students are more likely to gain proficiency in all of the basic skills areas (reading, writing, and mathematics) and have stronger persistence, GPA, and retention outcomes once they enter a degree program.

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