English Learners in the Community College: Research, Policy, and Practice

• In Event: Into, Through, and Beyond Community College: Pathways for English Learners and Language Minority Students

Abstract

This paper summarizes the empirical literature on English learners (EL) in community college and describes the relevant policy and practice landscape. Only a small body of research has been published on the experiences and outcomes of EL and language minority (LM) students in community college, despite the fact that most ELs and LMs begin their postsecondary education at these institutions (Hodara, 2014). The available research suggests that EL and LM postsecondary student outcomes are worse than those of their native-English speaking peers, and that colleges are exploring new and innovative ways to support these students by reforming their assessment and placement systems, creating new English as a Second Language (ESL) course structures and curricula, and making other institutional changes (Almon 2012; Kanno & Cromley, 2011). Our review of practice and research aims to capture the significant components of ELs’ pathways into and through community college, with the purpose of documenting what is currently known in the field about this population and how institutions serve them.

The major topics of the review were derived from a set of interviews with researchers in the field of ESL. These topics were further refined after a search of the literature published after 2000. These topics include classification, assessment and placement, curriculum and pedagogy, and identity. We conducted our literature search in five research databases and reviewed the table of contents for 18 of the most popular peer-reviewed journals featuring ESL.

This review provides important context for understanding the experiences and trajectories of EL and LM students in community colleges by analyzing how these students are identified (Okhremtchouk, 2014; Thompson, 2015); policies at the federal, state, and institution levels that impact EL and LM students (Freidenberg, 2002; Harman & Varga-Dobai, 2012); ESL high school experiences (Menken, 2013; Garcia, Woodley, Flores, & Chu, 2012); and the transition to college (Kanno & Cromley, 2013; Goldschmidt, Notzold, Miller, & Ziemba, 2003). It then explores the ESL assessment and placement process at community colleges (Bunch & Panayotova, 2008), including a discussion of the institutional systems for placement, the effectiveness of these systems, and the reforms underway (Solano-Flores & Li, 2013; Young, Steinberg, Cline, Stone, Martiniello, Ling, & Cho, 2010). The review also incorporates research on EL and LM student experiences and their processes of negotiating identity (Harklau, 2000; Fuentes, 2016).

The presentation will share the results of this review, highlighting the multitude of factors that are impacting EL and LM student outcomes. As the number of EL and LM students in college continues to grow—and given the dearth of research on this population—documenting, analyzing, and evaluating the policies and practices impacting these students’ experiences offers an important contribution to collective efforts to serve these populations more effectively.

Authors

• Jessica R Brathwaite

• Julia Raufman, Community College Research Center

• Nikki Edgecombe, Teachers College, Columbia University