About MDRC
O’Donoghue is a data manager in MDRC’s Young Adults and Postsecondary Education policy area. Her projects currently include three randomized controlled trials: the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) Ohio Demonstration, which seeks to determine whether City University of New York (CUNY) ASAP can be successfully replicated in Ohio; Detroit Promise Path, which adds student support services to the Detroit Promise scholarship program; and Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success (iPASS), which provides technology tools and integrated data to college students and advisers. Across these projects, she supports colleges in using quantitative data to provide the services students need to be successful. Before joining MDRC in 2016, O’Donoghue worked in mental health and homelessness services. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Bryn Mawr College and a master’s degree from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
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MDRC Publications
ReportThree Years of the Detroit Promise Path Program for Community College Students
March, 2021This program combines a tuition-free scholarship with additional forms of support, such as a campus coach and personalized communications, to keep students on track to graduate. A three-year evaluation shows that the program helped students stay enrolled in school and earn more credits, but had no impact on degrees earned.
Issue FocusAdapting the Evidence for 2020 and Beyond
June, 2020MDRC has studied a number of strategies for helping students stay in college and succeed there. Lessons from some of these models may be readily adapted to support students and close equity gaps now and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This Issue Focus offers three lessons taken from MDRC’s evaluations.
ReportInterim Findings from the Detroit Promise Path Evaluation
April, 2019The Detroit Promise allows the city’s high school graduates to attend local colleges tuition-free. To that scholarship the Detroit Promise Path adds campus coaches, monthly financial support, enhanced summer engagement, and messages informed by behavioral science. Interim findings about persistence in school, full-time enrollment, and credit accumulation are all positive.
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Other Publications
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Projects
Under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security ( CARES ) Act of 2020, Congress created the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund ( HEERF ) as the first-ever federal emergency aid program in higher education.
MDRC , in collaboration with the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and the Student Affairs Administrators in...
College Promise is the latest college-access movement in the United States. With more than 300 programs across the nation, College Promise is pushing forward national conversations about college access and affordability. College Promise programs typically cover college tuition and fees for students in a particular geographic area. Some programs help students from a...
Alexander Mayer, Melissa Boynton, Michelle Ware, John Diamond, Rebekah O'Donoghue, Edith Yang, Dorota Rizik, Erika B. LewyIntegrated Planning and Advising for Student Success (iPASS) is an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which recently made its second large investment in 26 colleges and universities engaged in technology-mediated advising reform.
The iPASS initiative provides technology tools and data about students’ academic performance to both...
Colleen Sommo, Michael J. Weiss, Michelle Ware, Melissa Boynton, Michelle S. Manno, Alyssa Ratledge, Rebekah O'Donoghue, Rae Walker, Camielle HeadlamWhile the U.S. has made strides in increasing college access among low-income students, college completion has remained low. Graduation rates are particularly stagnant among our nation’s community colleges, which enroll a large number of low-income and nontraditional college students. For example, only 20 percent of full-time, first-time degree-seeking students at...
Colleen Sommo, Susan Scrivener, Michael J. Weiss, Michelle Ware, Michelle S. Manno, Alyssa Ratledge, Rebekah O'Donoghue, Austin Slaughter, Gilda AzurdiaNational attention is focused on increasing graduation rates at community colleges. Graduation rates are particularly low for students who come to campus underprepared for college-level work. Across the nation, between 60 and 70 percent of entering freshmen in community colleges enroll in developmental (or remedial) math, reading, or writing courses. Data show that...