This research tested and evaluated how one method--Competency Points (CPs)--increased student success by enhancing engagement and motivation in community college English composition students. In 2005 I introduced Competency Points in my English Composition 1 classes, and began tracking how engaged and motivated students were to succeed as revealed by the following five indices: number of completed essays and reading assignments, frequency of class attendance and participation, and rate of course completion. Students showed marked improvement in four, and negligible improvement in one, of these variables. (Contains 2 footnotes.)