C4 eJournal, Issue 1

California Community College Collaborative (C4) Community College Policy Research John S. Levin, editor Issue I Spring 2008 Language Minority Students and California Community Colleges: Current Issues and Future Directions George C. Bunch University of California, Santa Cruz It has been argued that the United States is in the midst of a “perfect storm,” precipitated by immigration and other demographic changes, an increasing disparity in literacy and numeracy rates, and “seismic changes” in the globalized and technology-driven labor market (Kirsch, Braun, Yamamoto, & Sum, 2007). If this is true, then California is in the center of that storm, and the state’s community colleges are charged with helping to weather it. One-quarter of current Californians, 9.6 million children and adults, were born outside of the United States. This represents the highest proportion of foreign-born population in the state since 1890 and a fivefold increase in immigration since 1970 (Public Policy Institute of California, 2007). In California’s public K-12 schools, over 40% of students (2.6 million) come from households where a language other than English is spoken (Rumberger, 2007). One in four of all schoolchildren in the state, 1.6 million, are classified as English learners (EL’s), the designation for students that the school system believes are not yet able to do grade-level work in English in mainstream classrooms without interventions. Community colleges play a crucial role in educating California’s linguistically diverse population. They are responsible for serving both young adults transitioning from California high schools to postsecondary education, as well as adults of various ages pursuing a wide variety of education goals, including English language development and job training. In fact, students from immigrant and language minority backgrounds rely on all of community colleges’ traditional functions: vocational and technical training, remedial and developmental education, community and continuing education, English language development, completion of associate’s degrees, and academic preparation for transfer to four-year colleges and universities(Cohen & Brawer, 2003). 1 Community colleges’ historical “collegiate function” (Cohen & Brawer, 1987, 2003) plays a particularly crucial role in the educational aspirations of California’s postsecondary students. The state’s Master Plan allows only the top one- third of high school students initial access to public four-year institutions, designating community colleges for the education of the remaining population interested in pursuing higher education (Hill, 2006). Given the length of time it takes to develop the English language proficiency necessary to succeed in mainstream academic settings (Hakuta, Goto Butler, & Witt, 2000), as well as the inequitable educational conditions English learners face in the state’s K-12 public school system (Callahan, 2005; Gandara, Rumberger, Maxwell-Jolly, & Callahan, 2003; Valdes, 1998, 2001), the importance of community colleges is magnified for those students still in the process of learning English. Therefore, while recent reports have focused on the vital role that community colleges play in teaching adult immigrants English as a Second Language in mostly non-credit programs focused on language skills for daily life and employment (Chisman & Crandall, 2007; Condelli, 2002; Crandall & Sheppard, 2004), in this paper I focus on the role that community colleges play in preparing language minority students academically for Associate’s degrees or transfer to four-year institutions. I use the term language minority students to refer to individuals who speak languages other than English and who have been identified as in need of English language development support at some point in their schooling in the United States, whether in K-12 or higher education. As I use it, the term includes both immigrants and children of immigrants whose English language skills are considered “suspect,” whether these students are currently enrolled in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes or not. Indeed, many or all of these functions may be encountered by a single student. For example, a student may seek transfer to a four-year institution yet be referred to English as a Second Language (ESL) program, or may begin in a vocation program and decide later to seek transfer.