Equitable Pathways for English Learners in Community Colleges? An Examination of Access and Success in Transfer-Level English

• In Event: Community Colleges and English Learners: Perspectives on Transfer, Structure, and Equity

Abstract

Currently, major assessment and placement reforms are taking place across the country, such as Assembly Bill 705 in California (California Community College Chancellor’s Office, 2018), which requires that community colleges maximize the probability that students complete transfer-level English and math. These reforms impact EL-USHS entering the California community college system, as these students may begin in the English pathway or the ESL pathway. While existing research has examined reforms that can broadly improve ESL programs (Bunch et al., 2011; Bunch & Kibler, 2015; Raufman et al., 2019), no study has provided a rich description of the curricular trajectories of EL-USHS from high school to community college. As such, the purpose of this study is to investigate the curricular pathways of EL-USHS, as they relate to timely transfer-level English completion through the theoretical lens of cumulative (dis)advantage (DiPrete & Eirich, 2006; Merton, 1968, 1988).
Described in various ways across disciplines, the basic idea of cumulative (dis)advantage is that the advantage of one individual or group compounds over time and is a mechanism for growing inequality (DiPrete & Eirich, 2006; Merton, 1968, 1988). In educational research, cumulative (dis)advantage is used as a framework to describe tracking and group differences in academic outcomes and trajectories (DiPrete & Eirich, 2006; Gamoran & Mare, 1989; Kerckhoff & Glennie, 1999). ELs can become “long term” ELs over time through schooling experiences with programs and curricula that may not meet their needs—whether nonexistent, inconsistent, poorly implemented, and/or narrow in scope; ELs may also experience social segregation and linguistic isolation (Olsen, 2010). Therefore, cumulative (dis)advantage is a relevant framework to examine ELs’ academic trajectories, as many ELs have accumulated disadvantages that hinder their ability to access and persist in college.
Our study identifies EL-USHS using student-level high school and community college records from California’s intersegmental longitudinal data system, Cal-PASS Plus. To infer the intensity of exposure to schooling practices, social structures, and educational policies and systems experienced by ELs, the number of years that EL-USHS participated in high school English Language Development (ELD) instruction is used as a proxy to discern the intensity of cumulative disadvantages.
The analysis examines patterns of English throughput rates, the proportion of student cohorts who complete transfer-level English within one academic year (if starting in the English pathway) or within three academic years (ESL pathway), among community college EL-USHS. Overall, EL-USHS (n = 49,474) who experienced greater cumulative disadvantages (e.g., more years of ELD instruction) were more likely to access the ESL pathway than the English pathway. However, regardless of how many years of ELD instruction, EL-USHS experienced greater throughput rates in the English pathway than the ESL pathway. Trends on who accessed which pathway emerge upon further data disaggregation by student characteristics.
By better understanding the multi-dimensionality among ELs and the ways that this heterogeneous group of students experience the community college system, the field can reimagine and/or further formulate systems and practices that serve ELs more equitably.

Authors

• Craig L. Hayward, Bakersfield College

• Cecilia Rios-Aguilar, University of California - Los Angeles

• Yasuko Kanno, Boston University

• Davis Vo, University of California - Los Angeles