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Making the Case for Revising the Placement Process: A Lit Review

Making the Case for Revising the Placement Process: A Lit Review. Deborah L Harrington, Executive Director, 3CSN. Mandatory Assessment & Placement: A Path Strewn with Good Intentions?.

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Making the Case for Revising the Placement Process: A Lit Review

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  1. Making the Case for Revising the Placement Process: A Lit Review Deborah L Harrington, Executive Director, 3CSN

  2. Mandatory Assessment & Placement: A Path Strewn with Good Intentions? • Amending California Ed Code Section 78213 to require colleges to use the new common assessment for course placement

  3. Standardized Placement Tests • Over 92% of community colleges across the U.S. assess and place students in a remedial sequence using scores from a standardized test • The most typically used testing instruments, Accuplacer & Complass, come from two of the largest for profit companies in the U. S.

  4. We Don’t Agree • On who needs remediation • On what standards & curriculum best move students to college-readiness • On what even constitutes collegiate level work

  5. Drawbacks of Mandatory Placement • Increased pressure on open access • Would students with varying educational goals, such as adults needing coursework for job enhancement, be best served by not being mandatorily assessed at all? • No conclusive evidence these placement tests actually produce valid indicators of academic success

  6. Multiple Measures—wait, what multiple measures? • “The vast majority of students are not run through a multiple measures system. They have to go back to a counselor if they don’t like their test score.” Vice Chancellor Patrick Perry • If multiple measures genuinely used, students more likely placed in higher levels

  7. Diagnostic Testing Promising as Part of Multiple Measures Strategy • Testing for attitudinal and behavioral strengths & weaknesses in such areas as self-regulation & self-confidence • However, these strategies have yet to be systematically developed

  8. Effectiveness of Traditional Dev Ed Sequence Unclear • Goldrick-Rab (2010) notes for every study of Dev Ed sequences showing “short-term positive effects on student persistence,” there are studies finding “no impacts on degree completion.” • Large-scale studies demonstrating ineffectiveness of Dev Ed sequences in both Texas & Florida predicated on remediation effects on students who barely fail the assessment test (think about barriers to students at lower levels)

  9. Bailey, et al. (2010): Placement is Destiny… • Between 33 & 46% of students ever complete the remedial sequence • Between 60-70% of students who fail to complete the sequence did so while having passed all of the deved courses in which they enrolled • 72% of students who ignored their placement succeeded in the college-level course compared to 27% who followed their referral by completing all the required deved courses

  10. Bottom Line: As Burdman (2012) notes, the research is telling a new narrative • Placement exams are high-stakes tests • The effectiveness of traditional developmental education is unclear • Accelerating some students through or out of developmental courses seems promising • Placement exams are weak predictors of success in gateway courses • Math and English assessments provide at best a narrow picture of students’ readiness for college

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