ESL Acceleration: An Examination of Five Instructors' Experiences and Perceptions of Curricular Reforms at Two California Community Colleges

摘要

National data shows that only thirty six percent of community college students graduate or attain a degree within six years of starting college (Shapiro, Dundar, Chen, Ziskin, Park, Toores, Chiang, 2012). In fact, forty five percent of community college students drop out within the first three years according to Provasnik & Planty (2008). California community colleges educate about 25%, or 2.6 million students (Student Success Task Force, 2013); startlingly, seventy percent of these students enter college needing basic skills in reading, writing, and math (SSTF, 2013; Bailey, Jeong, & Cho, 2008). Because so many students enter the CA community college systems with academic skills one to four levels below transfer level courses, many never make it to graduation. In fact, only 53.6% of these students receive a degree or transfer to a higher institution (Student Success Task Force, 2013, p. 6). The transfer rate is even lower for students of color, especially for English language learners (ELLs) or English learners (ELs) who often assess one to four levels below college transfer courses. As a result, ELs spend more time completing basic requirements; therefore, only a quarter of these ELs ever earn a degree or transfer to a four year institution (SSTF, 2013).;The focus of the California Community College Chancellor's Office for the past several years has been to get community college students to graduate, transfer, or earn certificates. This is its definition of success. In order to increase success that is measured by numbers, community colleges are tasked with finding the most efficient ways to revamp cafeteria style developmental programs in math, English, and ESL to a more guided path that could lead students to success (Bailey, Jaggars, & Jenkins, 2015). This push has strongly been felt in programs such as ESL, as English language learners have even lower rates of graduation, transfer, and certificate earnings because most ESL programs are often broad and long, taking many students several years or longer to complete. The push to increase success rates at community colleges has lead to the creation of organizations such as the California Acceleration Project and The Initiative Acceleration in Context. These organizations, which were established several years ago, have promoted ideologies in which the focus is clearing unnecessary pathways or "shortening the pipelines" for low-skill community students so that they can go into college-level courses more quickly (Bailey, Jaggars, & Jenkins, 2015; Bailey, 2009, 2009B; Bailey et al., 2008). Many community colleges have begun to create shorter pathways for students through accelerated or fast-track programs (Bailey, 2009, 2009B; Bailey et al., 2008).;More than a dozen ESL programs have begun to offer accelerated pathways for their students in hope to increase the success rate. Do these programs really increase English learners' success rate? This question is beyond the scope of this dissertation. However, in order to better understand these acceleration programs, one needs to understand the experiences and perceptions of the instructors who teach in these ESL acceleration programs.;The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the experiences and perceptions of five instructors teaching English to speakers of other languages who went through curricular reforms, moving from traditional to acceleration ESL programs at two California community colleges. In addition, the study also examined how the acceleration model shaped or influenced their teaching practices.;The study used a type of qualitative method, a case study of these instructors' experiences working with students using the ESL acceleration curriculum. The transcripts of five interviews and notes of 13 hours of classroom observations were analyzed using coding methods learned in the program. The conclusions were drawn based on prominent themes that arose from the data analyses.;Findings show that a) instructors had mixed feelings about the ESL acceleration model at first but came to accept that the program is working as well as they had hoped, b) that the instructors' strong sense of moral purpose and professionalism caused them to put the students first by adapting the model to fit the students' needs, and c) that the instructors understand that the programs have both challenges and successes. Other findings show that the structure of the acceleration pathways confused some students, as they did not know how they would be accelerated and that participants who were adjunct faculty members felt conflicted because they were valued by their ESL peers but not by their administrators or the college because of their part-time status.