Community colleges provide open access and affordable options for higher education to a growing population of adult English Language Learners (ELLs) in the United States. Language minority groups, particularly native Spanish speakers, are currently the fastest growing demographic in the nation. Community college English as a Second Language (ESL) courses constitute a vital support for these students by providing adult ELL students with foundational college literacy skills. With the growing demand for college graduates in today's workforce, language minority students, like their native English-speaking (NES) counterparts, need to leave college with vendible work credentials. Community colleges need practical and affordable ways to improve learning and degree completion rates of their English language learners. College ESL programs face two key challenges in realizing this goal: (1) providing quality language preparation for college-bound E LLs, and (2) developing efficient ways to deliver curricula to a student population that has limited financial resources and time. This was a single institution case study that investigated two ESL curriculum models at a large urban community college. The study compared the academic performance and persistence of ELL students who studied in a sheltered ESL curriculum to ELL students who studied in a concurrent enrollment ESL curriculum that combined college-level courses with advanced ESL study. The researcher analyzed student data from college archives: transcript data, admission data, and course performance results. Data from three student groups were salient to the study -- students in concurrent enrollment courses (partially-mainstreamed ESL students), students in traditional ESL courses (not mainstreamed), and native English speakers in freshmen-level general education courses. The study described the relationship between the two types of ESL curriculum and the academic performance and persistence of ELL students in each program. Findings showed that advanced ELL students were able to successfully complete select college courses as they finished their ESL program. Results indicated that early access to college courses motivated students to persist. This study can help ESL practitioners and administrators in higher education determine if a concurrent enrollment curriculum model is a viable alternative for intermediate and advanced level ELL students. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Although temporal issues affecting organizations and leaders have been researched, time orientation (preference for one or more of the present, past, and future time frames) and visioning ability of change agents within organizations remain open for additional investigation. This exploratory survey study compared self-reported time orientation (TO) and visioning ability ratings of administrators and faculty at a community college. The research added to the extant literature by contextualizing the measures of the key constructs and extending the research to a novel setting. Scores for all three time frames were assessed in contrast to studies that emphasize future orientation. In addition, TO measures were obtained using an instrument constructed specifically for organizations (Fortunato & Furey, 2009). An adapted version of a visioning ability by Thoms and Blasko (1999) was constructed to address a specified time depth (the distant future) and domains relevant to higher education. Administrators reported significantly higher ratings than faculty on Future TO and visioning ability measures. Future TO scores for faculty were lower in relation to scores on the other two TO scales, but no within-group TO differences were found for administrators. A multiple regression model indicated that Future TO was the best predictor of visioning ability. Faculty teaching in the Associate of Science areas had higher Present TO scores than those teaching in the Associate of Arts programs. TO and visioning ability did not change as a function of gender, age, culture, and years of experience in higher education. The interpretation of the findings was limited by the lack of benchmarks that allow for meaningful comparisons across organizations, and by a continued need to establish construct and predictive validity for the key measures. The research has implications for hiring decisions, for staff development, and for temporal profiling in organizations interested in envisioning the distant future. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The problem of this study was to determine the perceived competencies needed by supervisors in order to supervise instruction conducted by part-time instructors in a junior/community college setting. The study was conducted in three phases. The purpose of phase one of the study was to determine the areas of responsibility and tasks which are appropriately delegated to the supervisors of part-time instructors. To accomplish this purpose, areas of responsibility and tasks were drawn from job descriptions for the position of supervisor of part-time instructors in the Dallas County Community College District. The areas of responsibility and tasks were reworded by the investigator to serve as items in a questionnaire to which participants in the First National Conference on Part-time Instructors in the Community College were asked to respond. Means and standard deviations were determined for each group in relation to each competency statement for both importance and adequacy. All 134 competency statements listed in the questionnaire were rated by all groups as important. All but four of the competencies were rated by all groups as adequately performed by present supervisors. A list of seven competencies which were deemed very important (mean score of 4.50 or more) was presented.

The study was undertaken: (a) to categorize the contents of educational computing articles using a taxonomy developed by Knezek, Rachlin, and Scannell (1988), (b) to examine the trends in educational computing subject matter addressed in community/junior college journals between 1977 and 1991, and (c) to identify and analyze specific characteristics of contributing authors and their employing institutions which might explain writing and publication biases.

This study chronicles the contributions of Bill J. Priest under the headings of Board of Trustees governance model, multi-college district, quality first: facilities and staff, curriculum, counseling, public relations, telecourses and the Bill J. Priest Institute for Economic Development. Data were gathered from personal interviews, primary sources and secondary sources. The study includes an overview of the emergence and evolution of the junior college with specific focus on the conceptual beginnings of the Dallas County Community College District and the selection of its founding president, Bill Priest. Professional and personal profiles of Priest are documented as background for the study. Conclusions are that Bill Priest established the Dallas County Community College District as a national model of a multi-college district, was instrumental in affecting the change from junior college to comprehensive community college as the standard for two-year higher education institutions, played a significant role in setting the national agenda for the community college movement through his long-term participation in a leadership capacity in the American Association of Junior and Community Colleges and through the establishment and selection of leadership of the League for Innovation, was instrumental in the creation of the Associate Degree of Nursing, was a national leader in the establishment and development of telecourses as an instructional delivery system, was the forerunner in utilizing public relations and establishing it as a credible tool for institutions of higher learning, and brought the concept of counseling and advising as a vital part of student success to the two-year colleges in Texas.