In addition to giving a review of the literature, she interviewed and surveyed students and faculty, as well as faculty advisors, about their experiences and the challenges they faced regarding retention.

“Several themes regarding students’ needs have emerged,” she wrote. Her recommendations boiled down to holistic approach that included:

A mandatory study skills course to help better prepare students for college-level work

Better academic advising

A student center or other central place to gather with other students.

A psychologist to “administer educational testing and offer counseling.”

And a wellness center.

“Delaware Tech has the capacity to be so much better than it is presently,” she wrote. “The key to student retention is a coordinated, cohesive effort by administration, faculty, staff, and students. A student retention plan requires diligence and effort—but most of all, leadership.”

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4711592&forum_id=2#41540349)

Tinto says he knew little about the project at the time, but that he answered Biden’s questions by phone. “I had no idea what the dissertation was going to become,” he told EdSurge. “I get so many of these requests, and I never want to turn them down I talk to so many graduate students.”

Reading through the dissertation now, he says, his first reaction is “Amen.” He said that her paper gives a practical roadmap to solving key problems that had not yet been fully articulated at the time. “Most of the things she identified are the ones that need to and have now started to be addressed,” he said.

And he praised her focus on thinking deeply about the experience of students of all backgrounds and experience levels. “The first two pages of her dissertation, where she describes her classroom and students, speaks volumes about her commitment to diversity,” he said.

The passage he refers to reads:

“The community college classroom is unlike any other classroom in America. Diversity, rather than homogeneity, is the norm. In an average-sized class of twenty students at Delaware Tech, for example, most of the seats will be filled with young students who have just graduated from high school. The majority of these will be female. At least five seats will be filled with middle-aged men and women who have lost their jobs due to downsizing and/or outsourcing. One or two seats will be filled with students who have graduated from a GED program. Some seats will hold older women whose children have just entered college – now these women are taking the opportunity to earn college degrees themselves. Three quarters of the class will be Caucasian; one quarter of the class will be African American; one seat will hold a Latino; and the remaining seats will be filled with students of Asian descent or non-resident aliens. At least one quarter of the students will have children – most of them will be single mothers. Some will be the first in their families to attend college.”

It is clear that Jill Biden plans to advocate for community colleges as she enters the White House. Just this week, she spoke at a symposium led by the College Promise Career Institute, a nonprofit that has an effort called College Progress that aims to make community college free.

“Community colleges fuel our industries, and we need an educated skilled trained workforce to lead the world in a 21st century economy,” she said at the event. “This isn’t a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, it’s an American issue.”

Tinto, the Syracuse professor, said that he hopes that Biden continues to keep the issue of retention in mind as she furthers her advocacy. “I would personally hope that one of the things Dr. Biden would do is maybe establish a task force to look at what should we as a nation do to move the needle on retention,” he said.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-11-20-what-jill-biden-s-dissertation-reveals-about-her-approach-to-higher-education

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4711592&forum_id=2#41541440)

With an Ed.D., and having been the fucking spouse of a former Senator and VPOTUS, couldn't she have landed some bullshit administrator job?

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4711592&forum_id=2#41541467)

I supported Trump, but didn't think Melania was a particularly good first lady. So there

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4711592&forum_id=2#41541509)

Just like I call you Dr. Asshole. PAGING DR. ASSHOLE!

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4711592&forum_id=2#41541805)

Check out the comparison between the Ed.D. and Ph.D. in Ed. at the bottom. This is a thoroughly garbage degree, you historionic woman.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4711592&forum_id=2#41541856)

This is not very different than a mail-order degree based on “life experience”.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4711592&forum_id=2#41542041)

Wonder if he has a nickname among the student body

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4711592&forum_id=2#41543768)

but she's been an excellent wife and mother and is a hero in her native Slovenia, so whatever

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4711592&forum_id=2#41541830)

Would love to see if it’s merely mediocre or actually Moochelle-level awful.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4711592&forum_id=2#41541785)

lol I bet your mom's tits aren't even perky

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4711592&forum_id=2#41541841)

https://www.proquest.com/docview/304859163

looks like you'd have to pay for more

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4711592&forum_id=2#41541850)