READING JILL BIDEN'S DISSERTATION: A THREAD. My curiosity got the best of me, may Zeus and Thor have mercy on my soul. I will read it until I get bored and then stop. The first paragraph has what I believe to be a typo. I think she meant "under served," not "undeserved." 1/x

3/4 plus 1/4 somehow leaves extra seats left over, which is kind of hilarious after this summer's 2 + 2 = 5 nonsense. 2/x

So far it's just very meh. The kind of thing one writes when one has to meet a minimum word requirement. What's that? In addition to ON campus programs, there are OFF campus programs, as well? I see. 3/x

The subtitle is about meeting the needs of students, so this part cracks me up. 4/x

So it is limited to select students found in the prestigious population of....adults. Got it. 5/x

This is actually admirable. I wonder if they successfully do this, or if the paper will say that students have emotional needs for more courses that recognize their oppression and victimhood? 6/x

This seems to confirm that the first paragraph contained a typo, as I suspected. 7/x

Oh dear Zeus on Mount Olympus...this is meant to imply that the problem was made even a tiny bit better? Surely not. 8/x

There is a long section relaying the history of a debate over whether "junior colleges" should focus on practical skills for the marketplace or on more academic skills, thus preparing students to go on to a regular university. Dry, book report stuff, but whatever. 9/x

This section is a fair representation of the writing quality, I think. I'm not trying to be cruel and not even trying to be snarky (regularly followers know I can snark quite well when I'm trying). It's very 8th-grader-reading-an-essay-nervously-at-front-of-the-room stuff.
10/x

No, not approximately. Not even very approximately. Not even close by any stretch of the imagination. I have no idea what anyone was thinking, or failing to think, here. 11/x

Now we start the section on pre-tech students, which she defines here for us. It really does sound like quite a mission to get these students through any kind of college. 12/x

I checked her math here and she got the addition correct, but I'm not sure where the 71.3 percent comes from. Out of 279 sections, the percentage of developmental classes is 102/279 or 36.6%. Possibly I'm missing something that's explained later (?) as I'm tweeting-as-I-go. 13/x

This part is jaw-dropping to me. Focusing on how the 'developmental learners,' the pre-tech students can be better served, her first suggestion is this. THIS is a "major hurdle"? Seriously? How stupid does she think her students are? SERIOUSLY? 14/x

Interesting. As the point of the paper is meant to be retention, I wonder what she ends up saying about this type of student?

15/x

As someone who tweets often and quickly and as a result has many typos, I really shouldn't have laughed this hard. Good old percent vs percentile.
16/x

Next up is a literature review section, presumably on the "pre-tech" students we just discussed, although that's not entirely clear. The first section supports mandatory orientation to increase retention by building student "identification" with the institution. Okey-dokey.
17/x

This made me . We've covered that pre-tech students need remedial courses to help them gain the basic skills they lack to be ready for college credit. Now they need mini-courses to give them the basic skills to learn the basic skills they lack. Here's an idea. Fix K-12!! 18/x

I think she means "advising," here, not "advisement." The latter means "careful consideration," whereas the former has to do with offering suggestions. Perhaps it's a regional thing, though; I don't want to be too nit-picky. 19/x

The long section on advising boils down to "advisors should be pseudo-parental, highly involved, and the more cheerleading the better." Which, ok. I'm sure that would actually help in many cases. Sad that it's necessary, but ok. Next up: "Mentoring/Ethnic Groups." Oh, joy! 20/x

This section opens with the usual "we need more diversity so diverse students will be comfortable" stuff, and then...this. Wow. She seems to have a very low opinion of minority students.

21/x

As a first generation student myself, this section is interesting, but poorly organized. I'm Casper the Friendly Ghost white, yet this stuff is in the "ethnic groups" section. Shoutout to my (then, email) friend @conceptualjames who helped me figure out some of this stuff. 22/x

The "writing skills" section interests me. I'm a math geek but I love to write and do a lot of it. A writing crisis! I love it. She proposes essay tests and not just scantrons. Sure, sounds fine. Next up: Social Issues. 23/x

The "Social Issues" section boils down to "students should be helped to make friends and often college friendships become strong when learning together," i.e. group projects and study groups are valuable, especially for first generation students. Next: Psychological Issues.

24/x

Look, psychological issues matter and I'm a big fan of disability accommodations, having received quite a few (deaf, PTSD). But for the love of Zeus, a college is responsible for an adult's emotional well-being? SERIOUSLY?
25/x

Long section about how the mental health crisis in general has hit community college students hardest (makes sense; they tend to have fewer resources and more responsibilities--working while being in school, having kids, etc.) and advocates for more counseling resources. 26/x

Next, the "political climate" (this was written during W's second term is making international students feel unsafe. This is weirdly shoved in between the psychological issues and physical health sections. Padding word count? 27/x

The health section talks about the "wellness centers" available in Delaware high schools. And I just now remembered this is supposed to be a lit review. It seems fairly thin on citations, based on the lit reviews I read as a psych minor, but that may be unfair. It may be 28/x

that psych lit reviews cite more abundantly and this may be just fine by education department standards. The conclusion of this section is just a summary. Students have needs. Colleges that meet the needs have more students stick around. Some of those needs are for help with 29/x

study skills, psychological issues, connection, and accessing healthcare. The next section is "METHODOLOGY." I shall take a break now and return to skewer this section, about which I actually know a little something (surveys and statistics). I'll return in a couple of hours! 30/x

Oh, wow. The surveys are only about pre-tech students, so I think the purpose of the dissertation is to discuss meeting the needs of the pre-tech students only. That wasn't clear to me. Quite possibly my own fault, though. OK, reading methodology now! 31/x

With regard to surveys, the methodology is murky at best (though it may be I'm just not understanding; if so by all means correct me). I'm not sure if the "two surveys" means that the same survey was given twice (before and after something?) or if both writing and reading

32/x

classes were each given two different surveys (at the same time?) or if perhaps the pre-tech writing classes got one and the pre-tech reading classes got a different one. Additionally, 11 faculty members had a discussion about the Writing Center and two dropouts were 33/x

asked to give their views. Lastly, two other CCs were contacted for retention statistics to compare. The latter seems insane to me; the whole point of the paper so far is that CC students have diverse needs and that CCs that meet those needs will retain more students. Why 34/x

would you just choose two CCs to compare? Wouldn't you control for demographics as closely as possible to have a meaningful-to-the-fullest-extent-possible comparison? (Maybe she did and didn't mention that...?) Also, faculty of English were asked to give retention numbers 35/x

going back four years, and a retention specialist was interviewed by phone. OK. On to the first survey, which is available in the first appendix. It has basic demographic and family questions, plus the questions in the pics. Aside from spousal abuse being a crime and not a 36/x

psychological problem, this all seems fairly mundane, and also very broad. I am just a math geek who minored in psychology, so I may be WAAAAAY off-base here--I am swimming in highly unfamiliar water--but I thought a doctoral dissertation would be something specific and 37/x

focused, not a sort of general "students have problems and if we meet them they'll stick around more thing." 38/x Break--more later!