[1] She earned her Ph.D. from Boston College in 2000, where she worked on modeling data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.
[6] O'Dwyer is known for her application of statistical tools to qualitative data, particularly with respect to analysis of educational outcomes.
[11][12] For high school students, O'Dwyer has examined their understanding of models in the study of biology, physics and chemistry.
[14] Her research on one-to-one computing includes quantifying how these programs influence teaching in the classroom[15] and she has examined how e-learning benefits teachers[16] in addition to the students.
Locally, O'Dwyer applies her research to analysis of elementary education, as she did in her town of Milton, Massachusetts in an examination of foreign language classes in 2012.