Enhancing Promise Programs to Improve College Access and Success

This issue brief from MDRC describes the Detroit Promise Path, a Detroit Regional Chamber initiative that allows Detroit high school graduates to attend college tuition-free. The Detroit Regional Chamber partnered with MDRC to add supportive services to improve the academic outcomes of students who earn free tuition. Those services include access to campus coaches, financial incentives to meet with those coaches, enhanced engagement to jobs and classes during the summer, and use of a monitoring information system that monitors program participation. Early findings from the first year showed that 95% of students responded to coaches’ outreach, 96% of students found the program valuable, and the program had a sizable impact on enrollment in the second semester.