An Introduction to REACT
Improving College Reenrollment and Completion for “Stopped-Out” Students
What Is REACT?
Over 40 million Americans are college “stop-outs,” meaning they have some college credit but left college before earning a degree.[1] Stopped-out students earn less and are more likely to be unemployed than those who have a postsecondary degree.[2] The Re-Enrollment and Completion Team (REACT) intervention aims to help such students reenroll and complete associate’s degrees. The REACT research team, led by Colleen Sommo of MDRC and Justin Ortagus of the University of Texas at Austin, is partnering with four community colleges in Florida to implement REACT and measure its impacts on reenrollment and degree completion through a multisite randomized controlled trial.
Program Components
REACT targets students who are within 15 credits of earning an associate’s degree but are not currently enrolled in college. The program has three primary components:
- Communication in many modes. Students receive text messages, emails, phone calls, and postcard mailers informing them about REACT. The messages use principles from behavioral science—including personalization and descriptions of the benefits of earning a degree—and connect students directly to REACT advisers who encourage and support students during the reenrollment process.
- Student support services. Before reenrolling, students meet with a REACT adviser to ensure they have a clear path to graduation. After reenrolling, students are encouraged to meet with their advisers at least once per semester. Advisers send messages to REACT students to share important reminders and resources and to facilitate two-way communication.
- Tuition waivers. REACT students’ tuition and fees are waived for up to 15 credit hours (approximately five courses). These waivers cover the cost of all remaining courses students need to complete their degrees. REACT students have up to five semesters to use the waivers but can use all waivers to complete a degree in a single semester, if preferred.
Why This Approach?
A growing body of research shows that combining multiple types of support into a single program can help students succeed, and students who stop out frequently cite finances as the primary reason for leaving college.[3] REACT therefore combines multiple types of support and helps cover students’ college costs. REACT also builds on a study that found a modest, positive impact on reenrollment but no impact on degree completion.[4] In that study, students with at least 30 college credits got text messages offering them a tuition waiver for one course if they reenrolled, but students who got the offer were no more likely to graduate. REACT strengthens that intervention by (1) increasing the number of course waivers from one to five, (2) reaching students using multiple modes of communication, (3) providing more hands-on support from an adviser, and (4) focusing on students who are only 15 credits or fewer from graduating to allow the waivers to cover all remaining courses.
About the Evaluation
The REACT research team worked with four community colleges in Florida to launch the REACT intervention in spring and summer 2025. The colleges are in rural, suburban, and urban areas, ranging in size from about 5,000 to 25,000 students. The colleges are:
- Florida SouthWestern State College (in Charlotte, Collier, Hendry, Glades, and Lee Counties)
- Northwest Florida State College (in Okaloosa and Walton Counties)
- Hillsborough College (in Hillsborough County)
- Palm Beach State College (in Palm Beach County)
Each college will offer REACT to randomly assigned eligible students through spring 2027. In addition to measuring the program’s impacts on reenrollment and degree completion, the research team will also study the program’s costs and implementation. Initial findings will be published in 2026, and updated findings will be available by early 2029.
To learn more about REACT, email reactstudy@mdrc.org.
The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A240245 to MDRC. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education. The REACT tuition waivers are made possible thanks to Helios Education Foundation.
[1] National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, Some College, No Credential: A 2025 Snapshot for the Nation and the States (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2025).
[2] Melanie Hanson, “College Dropout Rates” (website: https://educationdata.org/college-dropout-rates, 2025).
[3] Michael J. Weiss, Howard S. Bloom, and Kriti Singh, “What 20 Years of MDRC RCTs Suggest About Predictive Relationships Between Intervention Features and Intervention Impacts for Community College Students,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (2022) 45, 4: 569–597; Justin C. Ortagus, Benjamin T. Skinner, and Melvin J. Tanner, “Investigating Why Academically Successful Community College Students Leave College Without a Degree,” AERA Open (2021) 7.
[4] Justin C. Ortagus, Melvin Tanner, and Isaac McFarlin, “Can Re-Enrollment Campaigns Help Dropouts Return to College? Evidence From Florida Community Colleges,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (2020) 43, 1: 154–171.