Date of Award

January 2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Teaching & Learning

First Advisor

Zarrina Azizova

Abstract

The Detroit Promise Program is one of the many college promise programs operating within the United States that offers full college tuition coverage to students within the city who meet certain residential criteria. Detroit’s population has one of the highest proportions of Black and first-generation students and the lowest average socioeconomic class in the country. From the time of the Promise Program’s launch until now it has seen minor improvements in college degree competition rates, but this rate is still low compared to the national average. The Detroit Promise Path, which is an off branch of the Detroit Promise Program, offers coaching components and observes some improvements to the Detroit Promise Program in terms of retention rates and degree completion. These improvements suggest that increasing engagement with students could aid in improving retention even further. Currently there is not much consistency with coaching between the schools participating in the program.

This dissertation provides review of research-based support practices for the three main demographics of Detroit—Black, low-income, and first-generation students. My research compares evidence-based support practices with what the Promise Path coaches and students share about their experiences with coaching in the program. I then provide potential areas for improvement for coaching procedures in the program, which is based on the interview data that offered insights into support that is not being covered in the current coaching practices. Using past research, I offer suggestions as to how coaches might improve their support based on the identified areas of opportunity.

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