A new report from the Center for an Urban Future urges Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo to take new steps to boost graduation rates at New York City’s public and community colleges. Degrees of Difficulty: Boosting College Success in New York City finds that while New York City has made enormous progress with its high school graduation rate, the city still has a massive college success problem. According to the report, far too many of the students who enroll in the city’s community colleges and four-year colleges do not earn a credential. Indeed, just 22 percent of students at the city’s community college students graduate in three years, while only 55 percent of the students at CUNY’s senior colleges graduate in six years. Download report.

A new Child Trends report, Making the Grade: A Progress Report and Next Steps for Integrated Student Supports, finds growing evidence for the effectiveness of a rapidly expanding approach to educational achievement. Integrated student supports (ISS) promote students’ academic success by connecting them with nonacademic resources that support the whole child, including secure housing, medical care, tutoring, food assistance, and other supports.  The report comes as states and school districts begin to implement the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which explicitly encourages the use of ISS models. It finds that students’ participation in effective ISS interventions can have long-term benefits and provides an overview of effective models for policymakers, funders, and practitioners to examine as they try to build high-quality programs. Download the Executive Summary and the report.