American Acculturation and Academic Performance: Analyzing the Relationship between Years Living in the United States and Freshman Composition Grades at a Diverse Community College

ABSTRACT

In an effort to better understand how students’ length of exposure to American secondary schools relates to academic performance in core, first-year college courses, this study surveyed and analyzed the demography, study habits, and grades of 267 freshman composition (ENG 101) students at a large, urban community college. Results indicated that the longer students attended American secondary schools, the poorer they performed in ENG 101 (p < .001). These findings were echoed within all analyzed ethnic peer groups; Asian, black, and Hispanic students who attended foreign secondary schools significantly outperformed Asian, black, and Hispanic students who went to American high schools (p = .003, p = .005, and p = .023, respectively). Analyses also showed that the number of years living in the United States was negatively correlated with grades in ENG 101 (p = .036) and positively correlated with number of absences (p = .002). The relationships between number of years living in the United States and other study habits (hours of studying, hours of reading, and library use) were mixed, with number of years living in the United States showing a negative correlation with library use.