The Preparation of High School Graduates for Communigy College English Program in the Arizona Borderlands

This study utilizes state-mandated data collected by Arizona community colleges to analyze whether students from the Borderlands of Arizona, who enroll in a Borderlands community college during their first academic year after graduation from high school, place into freshman English or developmental English, at the same rate as their non-border peers. The state of Arizona holds all high school students to the same standards for graduation, and all community colleges in Arizona use the same placement assessment instruments. As a result, the study hypothesizes all students should perform similarly. Statistical analysis reveals that, despite equal education standards and assessment, not all Arizona high school graduates are similarly prepared for the first-year language arts curriculum at the state's community colleges. The study suggests possible causes for the disparities and establishes a firm starting point from which researchers and activists can study the reasons why some high school graduates in Arizona are clearly less prepared than others for the demands of college composition.