International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
the Computer-Adaptive College Placement (COMPASS) assessment, for which all new students at Bellevue
College must sit, both domestic and international. The COMPASS is an entry level placement test designed by
the American College Test program, and offers untimed computer-adaptive exams in reading, writing skills,
mathematics, and ESL. The COMPASS has two purposes: 1) to determine whether students have the skills to
succeed in college-level courses; 2) to place students in courses they are ready for, either college-level courses or
courses to prepare them for college-level courses. Every community college in Washington state administers an
assessment to entering students, including international students. The majority of the state’s community and
technical colleges use the COMPASS, including Bellevue College.
At Bellevue College, as at many colleges, the English reading and writing strand is a traditional ladder model,
in which students work their way “up”, depending upon their starting point, and students, based on their
COMPASS results, can place into any given part of the strand: ESL – basic skills – developmental education –
college-level writing, known as English 101, a requirement for all students for graduation from any community
college in Washington. When sitting for the COMPASS, Bellevue College students, including international
students, strive to place into English 101 for three practical reasons: 1) to avoid what is known as getting “stuck
in the pipeline” of the English strand (which can take up to two years to complete, if a student is persistent in
his/her studies, totaling an average of 4 years to degree completion at this primarily two-year college), 2) to
complete their English requirement before moving to their degree-specific courses or to courses at the college
for which English 101 is a pre-requisite, and 3) to graduate from Bellevue College within a two-year timeframe,
from start to completion.
More and more, colleges (and universities) in Washington state are enrolling record numbers of international
students for the financial and cultural benefit these students bring to an American campus. At Bellevue College,
specifically, international student enrollment – which has increased dramatically at the college in the past decade
– has sparked a continuing debate at the campus about how to best serve these students, many of whom are
under the age of 20 and away from their home country for the first time – from both a student services and
instructional lens. A particular emphasis in this debate – same as the emphasis in this paper – is placed on
reading, writing, and communicating in English, fundamental skill-sets necessary to succeed in the American
college classroom.
Often, international students arrive at the Bellevue College campus with what can best be described as a
“tourist’s knowledge” of English; that is, the students know enough to get to and from the campus, to navigate
the campus itself, and to ask for help. Combine this language barrier with the inherent difficulties that
international students face (homesickness, culture shock, and problems integrating with the campus as well as
local community culture, to name a few) and the task of helping these students succeed at Bellevue College, and,
particularly, to succeed in their critical English courses, broadens in scope – and urgency.
About the Researchers and Partnering Organization: American College Writing
American College Writing (ACW) was borne in the fall of 2012 from the notion that an external entity could
successfully partner with faculty in higher education – specifically in English 101 classroom – to develop and
deliver dynamic writing support for international students. This support is designed to improve students’
immediate and long-term writing skills and ensures their success in the American college classroom. In order to
support student achievement, instructors and their partners must be fully committed to collaborating on the
development of curriculum that is result-oriented, student-centered, with writing support that builds efficacy, and
which is pedagogically rooted in the principles of Universal Course Design, as outlined at the start of this paper,
and which alternately subscribes to adult learning theory, which holds that adult learners:
• Are internally motivated and self-directed
• Bring life experience and knowledge to learning experiences
• Are goal oriented
• Are relevancy-oriented
• Are practical
• Like to be respected
To facilitate learning for international students, it’s important to understand what motivates them to learn, and
how their barriers to learning have occurred. International students have their own life stories, their own
educational values, and their own perceptions of success in the classroom. For instance, while international
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