A slow but steady movement are starting to rethink and revise the single test score approach that sorts new college students into remedial or credit-level courses.
To counter the shortcomings of a potentially limiting and high-stakes practice, several states and postsecondary systems are beginning to use additional indicators to gauge students’ college readiness. Multiple measures could offer a more accurate way for students to demonstrate their potential to succeed in college-level courses and reduce the chance they will be placed in remedial courses. A review by Education Commission of the States found that at least 14 states or postsecondary systems allow or require measures that include but go beyond standardized tests to determine initial course placement. The most common use of multiple combines assessments, GPA and often high school coursework. Other measures include high school English and math grades, high school or institutional assessments, diagnostics exams, non-cognitive factors, previous college courses, work experience and student self-placement. In part, the shift toward multiple measures has been prompted or reinforced by studies from the Community College Research Center (CCRC) that found a student’s high school grade point average (GPA) often is a better predictor of college-level class performance than relying solely on their standardized assessment scores. Another CCRC study suggested that 18 percent of students who take a common math placement test and 30 percent who take the English exam are placed in remediation even though they could have earned a B or higher in a credit-bearing course. Under recently developed policies, California and North Carolina’s community colleges and most institutions in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Texas will be required to use multiple measures for course placement. In North Carolina, work undertaken through the Developmental Education Initiative led to a multiple measures policy that incorporates high school GPA, ACT or SAT scores, and diagnostic test results. In other states, such as Florida, Nevada and Ohio, institutions rely on measures in addition to assessments to direct students into credit-bearing or remedial courses. Ohio’s placement policy, for example, allows campuses to consider high school GPA, writing assessments and a review of previous college work, or other indicators.
Six Core Principles
Principle 1 - Every student’s postsecondary education begins with an intake process to choose an academic direction and identify the support needed to pass relevant credit-bearing gateway courses in the first year.
Principle 2 - Enrollment in college-level math and English courses or course sequences aligned with the student’s program of study is the default placement for the vast majority of students.
Principle 3 - Academic and nonacademic support is provided in conjunction with gateway courses in the student’s academic or career area of interest through co-requisite or other models with evidence of success in which supports are embedded in curricula and instructional strategies.
Principle 4 - Students for whom the default college-level course placement is not appropriate, even with additional mandatory support, are enrolled in rigorous, streamlined remediation options that align with the knowledge and skills required for success in gateway courses in their academic or career area of interest
Principle 5 - Every student is engaged with content of required gateway courses that is aligned with his or her academic program of study—especially in math.
Principle 6 - Every student is supported to stay on track to a college credential, from intake forward, through the institution’s use of effective mechanisms to generate, share, and act on academic performance and progression data.
''C/s" Rodney Hunter II
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