Report questions efficacy and fairness of college placement tests

De Anza Higher student Martin Finger tutors flick student Richie Joseph at the Math, Science and Technology Resources Center. Photo by Neil Hanshaw

The tests used by many community colleges and universities across the nation to make up one's mind whether incoming freshmen are set for higher-level courses are oft inaccurate and pose roadblocks to student success in college, according to new research summarized in a study released Midweek.

"With education reformers keenly focused on remedial education, new research using longitudinal data systems questions the efficacy and fairness of the very tests on which the system of remedial education relies," says author Pamela Burdman in Where to Brainstorm? The evolving function of placement exams for students starting college. The report was supported by Achieving the Dream, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping community college students, its affiliates, and Jobs for the Future, which develops new pathways to higher and careers for low-income youth.

The research shows that high school grades are a better predictor of student success in higher than placement test scores, Burdman said. She pointed to a written report of students who graduated from Long Beach Unified schoolhouse district and and so attended Long Embankment Urban center College. Ninety percent of the students were placed in remedial education and had to take, on average, more than five semesters of remedial coursework. However, the study found that students' loftier schoolhouse grade point averages and their discipline records were much meliorate predictors of college success than the placement tests. If the college had relied on those predictors, the the number of freshmen immune to accept college-level English courses would have risen by 500 pct.

These Long Beach findings were so stunning that a larger study that involves 22 California community colleges will soon brainstorm, Burdman said.

Unlike many states, California law requires that colleges rely on multiple measures – not just test scores – to determine whether students are ready for college-level courses. All the same, Burdman reported, many colleges only use these other measures if students competition their placement.

College placement tests accept avoided scrutiny in the by because, co-ordinate to the report, "with little inquiry on the topic, it has been easy to view college placement as a low-stakes consequence. Whether a student has to take an extra course or even a few never seemed every bit of import an issue as, say, which colleges he or she could attend."

But those tests can have a major touch on on a pupil's higher career.

A June 2010 written report by EdSource found that students often got stuck in the remedial course sequence. That written report found that roughly two-thirds of the California community college students studied who enrolled in remedial writing and mathematics sequences and three-quarters of those enrolled in a reading sequence did not consummate a credential or degree nor did they transfer. In addition, very few students at the lowest levels of remedial coursework ever completed all the basic skills classes they were supposed to take.

However, students don't announced to be aware of the high-stakes nature of these tests. In her report, Burdman pointed to a study by WestEd, an education research grouping based in San Francisco, that found students did non prepare for higher placement tests and had no idea that doing poorly could mean they would have to spend another semester or more in college.

Santa Monica community college is attempting to change that perception. The college offers an online orientation to its placement test and also explains to students why it is of import that they perform well on it.

Another effect raised in the report is whether tests could be developed that were "diagnostic." Educators could utilise a diagnostic examination to determine in what areas a educatee needs help and then provide focused back up in those areas rather than requiring the pupil to accept a semester-long remedial course.

California's Customs Colleges Student Success Task Force recommended in a January 2022 report that the colleges develop common assessments for reading, writing, math, and English language as a Second Language that tin provide diagnostic information. In addition, the colleges' Board of Governors sponsored a law in Oct 2022 that requires the colleges' Office of the Chancellor to work with the California Department of Education to develop common placement assessments for all the colleges. However, no funding was provided, and some question whether developing such an cess in the near time to come is fifty-fifty a skilful idea.

A June 2022 report past Learning Works and EdSource concluded that "a key question now facing California is whether statewide diagnostic assessments can be an effective lever for improving student success," peculiarly considering the country's customs colleges differ in how they organize their developmental courses. The report went on to say that the state might exist putting the cart earlier the horse. Due southhould the diagnostic exam, the written report asked, be created earlier the state's developmental curricula is reformed?

To further complicate matters, California, along with a number of other states, is creating new statewide K–12 assessments based on the Common Cadre curricula in English and math recently adopted by almost every state in the nation. In some ways, a common cess could make information technology easier for high schools and community colleges to reach understanding virtually how to measure college readiness.

"In many states, students who are proficient on the Common Cadre will be able to waive placement," Burdman said. But in California, she said, there are still a lot of questions. For case, she asks, will high schools and colleges agree on the same cut-off score for proficiency on the examination in a country where currently the community colleges have different ideas of what proficiency ways?

"A lot of things take to exist worked out," she said. "It's certainly a daunting job."

But in that location is some promise that agreement tin be reached. For many years, high school juniors accept been able to have a longer version of the STAR test in English language and math to determine their readiness for California Country University. If students test adept on the enhanced examination, then CSU does not require placement tests. Currently, many community colleges too will waive placement exams for students who examination proficient on CSU'southward Early Assessment Programme (EAP). But i drawback is that the simply students allowed to have the math portion of the exam are those who are taking Algebra II or a college-level math course.

As the country wrestles with how to reform its placement tests and developmental curricula, its efforts volition likely be noticed, Burdman said. "California has enough going on that information technology will exist one of the states people volition be paying attending to when they are grappling with these questions."

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Source: https://edsource.org/2012/report-questions-efficacy-and-fairness-of-college-placement-tests/18640