College readiness without borders : a real-world evaluation model for foundation year programs

In recent years, Foundation Year Programs (FYP) for international students have become increasingly popular at U.S. universities. Most pre-college programs for international students consist of pathway programs that offer conditional admission to the university upon completion. At the same time, stand-alone pre-college FYPs where admission to the host university is not guaranteed, particularly for government-sponsored students from the Middle East, are on the rise. However, the growth of these programs has not yet lead to a standardized definition of what holistic college readiness looks like for international students, who have significantly different needs than domestic students in language proficiency, cultural adjustment, and other areas. There is also a significant gap in the literature about how best to evaluate the effectiveness of FYPs given the unique constraints of these programs, particularly the lack of available data on students before and after the FYP. This paper aims to fill this gap by creating a holistic college readiness standard for international students. This standard draws on the Deardorff process model for intercultural competence,1 the Texas College and Career Readiness Standards2 and relevant literature. Additionally, this paper analyzes seven cases of past evaluations of bridge, pathway, and FYPs to develop recommendations for a real-world evaluation model for FYPs where more typical longitudinal or experimental methods of evaluation are unavailable