IMMIGRANT STUDENTS AT WESTCHESTER COMMUNITY COLLEGE GAIN IMPORTANT
SKILLS FOR COLLEGE AND CAREERS
Community Colleges Develop Strategies for Launching & Expanding
Innovative Immigrant Education Programs, Says New CCCIE Report
Westchester Community College, the host for the national Community College
Consortium for Immigrant Education (CCCIE), is improving educational and
employment outcomes for immigrant students, including increased
accessibility, affordability, college degree or certificate completion, and
job placements, according to a new CCCIE report, Increasing Opportunities
for Immigrant Students: Community College Strategies for Success. The
college is cited as one of numerous case study examples of community
colleges across the nation committed to expanding and strengthening programs
for immigrant students. The report also offers recommendations for actions
and investment for community college leaders and practitioners,
policymakers, and funders. The full report and an executive summary are
available at www.cccie.org.
Community colleges that have launched and expanded English as a Second
Language (ESL), academic, and career training programs note that their
initiatives address community- or region-wide skills shortages in such
fields as healthcare and green jobs. College leaders recognize the
contributions of immigrants to their communities’ economic growth and
cultural diversity, the report notes. And on a national scale, “as the
population ages and millions of baby boomers retire, immigrants and their
children will account for much of the U.S. population and labor force growth
over the next few decades,” the report states. “Ensuring educational access
and success for the immigrant population is critical to increasing U.S.
college completion, improving workforce readiness, and sustaining the
nation’s productivity in a highly competitive global economy.”
Promising Practices at Westchester Community College
The
report describes several promising practices at Westchester Community
College that are improving immigrant students’ academic and career skills.
With one in four Westchester residents born outside the United States, the
college’s Gateway Center provides various targeted programs and services for
immigrant students as well as U.S. born students, and reflects the strong
top-level commitment of President Joseph Hankin and his executive team to a
diverse immigrant student body. The Gateway Center is noted for its
innovative and interdisciplinary learning environment that promotes
increased cultural understanding and awareness among immigrants and
native-born students. “By housing programs in one central facility,
immigrant students can more easily gain the skills and competencies needed
to integrate into society. Native-born students can benefit by understanding
the richness of a multicultural community,” according to the report.
The importance of promoting community economic development and strengthening
immigrants’ career skills, as a component of local economic growth, is
highlighted throughout the report. As one example, the college’s
Professional Development Center, located in the Gateway Center, provides
workforce training (including ESL courses) to local companies and their
employees, including internationally educated, high-skilled immigrant
professionals. The Professional Development Center delivered a yearlong
English training program for members of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, one of
Westchester County’s largest pharmaceutical firms. The program, jointly
operated by Westchester Community College’s English Language Institute
(ELI), trained top immigrant scientists and researchers to increase their
English language skills, thus removing language barriers which might be
considered an impediment to productivity.
The college is also cited
for its TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Certificate
Program, offered through ELI in response to the increased demand for
well-qualified ESL instructors. ELI was finding that many of its applicants
for ESL positions—even those with master’s degree—lacked the right
combination of experience and training. At the same time, the
Continuing Education staff at Westchester Community College saw a growing
interest among professionals seeking second careers in teaching, especially
in the ESL field. Yet many could not afford to spend the time or money in a
master’s program, typically requiring two years of study. One of the key
strengths of the TESOL program is the integration of training with
extensive, supervised hands-on classroom teaching utilizing the college’s
multi-level ESL programs. The program helps fill ESL teaching positions at
the college as well at other area schools.
A Diverse
Immigrant Student Body
The colleges profiled in the report are
located in various parts of the country and range from large community
colleges in the nation’s major cities to smaller suburban campuses. The
colleges serve an increasingly diverse group of immigrant students, in terms
of English language proficiency, educational and skill levels, and country
of origin. Students range from those with both limited language and literacy
skills (in English and in their native languages) who lack high school
diplomas to college-educated immigrants who have earned degrees and
credentials in their home countries and have years of professional
experience, but lack the English language skills and cultural knowledge to
reenter careers and often face significant roadblocks in obtaining U.S.
recognition for their foreign credentials.
“At both ends of the
educational spectrum and from various walks of life—whether an incoming high
school student, a doctor, a nurse, engineer, migrant worker, or political
refugee—immigrants turn to community colleges to help them further their
education, prepare for citizenship, or launch new careers,” the report
notes. Many immigrants served by community colleges come from low-income
backgrounds and include older adult students juggling work and family
responsibilities, learning a new language, navigating unfamiliar educational
systems and community services, and acclimating to a totally new culture—all
at the same time.
“The report draws attention to the unique
challenges faced by immigrant students and the community colleges that serve
them, and it shows that, even with limited resources and in a difficult
economic environment, innovative and replicable approaches to immigrant
education and workforce training at the community college level are
possible,” notes CCCIE Executive Director Teresita B. Wisell, who also
serves as Associate Dean and Director of The Gateway Center at Westchester
Community College in Valhalla, New York, where CCCIE is located. The
colleges included in the report support programs often through a mix of
private and public funds and by effectively leveraging resources through
multi-sector partnerships that are “critical to the success and
sustainability of immigrant education and training initiatives.” Colleges
have collaborated with community-based organizations, k-12 schools,
four-year colleges, adult education systems, employers, and workforce
investment boards.
Critical Factors for Immigrant Student
Success
The report describes a Framework for Supporting
Immigrant Student Success, which identifies 11 key factors that contribute
to the innovations and promising practices at CCCIE colleges, according to
the report’s author CCCIE Director Jill Casner-Lotto. Among the key
factors: executive-level commitment and follow-through; proactive community
outreach; redesign of ESL career pathways that accommodate immigrants’
different educational and skill skills, integrate new technologies, and
increase flexibility; multi-sector partnerships; ESL faculty professional
development; and development of immigrant student leadership skills.
While CCCIE colleges—as well as other community colleges—are making
significant inroads in serving immigrant students, there have been few
opportunities to share the most promising practices and discuss the most
difficult challenges, she notes. Among the challenges cited: sustaining
programs with limited funds, and expanding ESL classroom capacity to meet
demand. “The framework is intended as a catalyst to start conversations with
key stakeholders and help community colleges implement a strategic plan for
launching and expanding innovative immigrant education practices,” says
Casner-Lotto. “We believe that the issues of immigrant education—and the
role that community colleges can and do play—have not received enough
attention at the national policy level or in higher education reform
efforts,” said Wisell. “Community colleges are well positioned to be
critical change agents in developing the tremendous potential of the
immigrant population.”
CCCIE (www.cccie.org) is a national
network of 23 community colleges, professional groups, and research
organizations committed to expanding and strengthening programs and services
for immigrant students at community colleges nationwide. National in scope,
CCCIE receives financial support from the J.M. Kaplan Fund and is hosted by
Westchester Community College in Valhalla, NY. Key activities include:
raising national visibility of immigrant education challenges and
opportunities, sharing promising practices, and providing advocacy and
outreach on critical education and career issues that impact immigrants at
all skill levels.
BLUE RIBBON PANEL MEMBERS
CCCIE’s national Blue Ribbon Panel includes representatives from a variety
of community colleges across the country, professional associations, and
experts in the field. BRP member organizations include:
Alamo
Community College District, TX
American Association of Community
Colleges, D.C.
Bluegrass Community and Technical College, KY
Bunker
Hill Community College, MA
City College of San Francisco, CA
CUNY,
Office of the Vice Chancellor for Community Colleges, NY
Johnson County
Community College, KS
LaGuardia Community College, NY
Literacy Works
International, NM
Miami Dade College, FL
Migration Policy Institute,
D.C.
Montgomery College, MD
National Community College Hispanic
Council, CA
Northern Virginia Community College, VA
Palm Beach State
College, FL
Pima Community College, AZ
Queensborough Community
College, NY
Rio Hondo College, CA
South Texas College, TX
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, WA
Westchester Community College, NY
Wilbur Wright College, IL
World
Education Services, NY
