The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study is to describe how community college students in Northeastern states describe the motivation to enroll in a non-required foreign language course. Self-determination theory was the theoretical framework for this study. One overarching research question guided the study: How do community college…

This dissertation consists of three empirical studies that explore the educational experiences and trajectories of English learners (ELs) and students with disabilities. The first study uses longitudinal data from four large California school districts to examine the characteristics of long-term ELs (LTELs) and former ELs--those reclassified as…

Objective: Extensive reform has been implemented in community colleges across the nation to help expedite the attainment of students' academic goals of degree completion and transfer to 4-year institutions. Reform at the institution in this study resulted in replacement of the college writing placement exam and the precollegiate course sequence…

In 2019, the United States hosted the largest number of international higher education students worldwide, and many chose to begin their education at a community college. As a result, community college ESL programs face a critical task. This quantitative study explored the effectiveness of ESL coursework on the academic success of international…

In most Western countries where English is the medium of instruction, there is a substantial gap in student success between immigrant English as a second language (ESL) students and non-ESL students. In the United States, this situation has been observed in particular with Latino ESL students. This article describes a longitudinal study of two…