Mandatory Placement Testing for
Mathematics Course Enrollment
A Response to program review:
Target Audiences and Success Rates
Academic Governing Council
October 14, 2014
Intent
To implement a policy to accurately assess
students’ current prerequisite knowledge for
placement into the math course that will
provide the best opportunity for success
Current Mandatory Placement Policy
• Policy Statement - GRCC students whose
Accuplacer scores indicate that they need
developmental coursework (in English, Math, or
Reading) will be required to enroll in and pass that
coursework before taking college-level English and
Math courses, and other specified college-level
courses.
• Reason for the Policy - Internal student success
data, as well as external research, scholarship, and
benchmarking, indicate that students who are
required to take developmental coursework
before taking college-level coursework are more
likely to succeed and persist in their college
studies.
Placement and Prerequisite
• Prerequisites provide students with the
knowledge to be successful in a course.
• Placement helps students determine whether or
not they are adequately prepared to take certain
college level courses
• To improve the facilitation of student success we
want to be able to increase the courses with
enforced prerequisites from 6 to 20
• Placement test scores and prerequisite courses
need to be current
Proposed changes to
Mandatory Placement Policy
• To require mandatory placement for all
students seeking to take a mathematics
course at the college who have not been
placed in or successfully completed the
prerequisite at an institution of higher
education in the 8 months prior to the first
day of class
• Remove names of vendors from mandatory
placement policy
Feedback Overview
We have gained greater knowledge of the
concerns of others; there will be additional work
to make this transition. A college-wide
implementation team would be developed to
work for a smooth transition.
All feedback considered this to be good for
students and desired to figure out how to do
what is best for our students.
Why 6 months?
• Peer recommendations at conference
• One of the reasons for poor correlation of ACT
scores is the amount of time between
assessment and course enrollment
• Due to procedural concerns we extended 6month
expiration to 8 months. This would allow students
to test in January for Fall semester. Registration
starts in March.
• External research indicates negative correlation
of success and time between courses
What is misplaced- Validity metrics for
placement tests.
• The primary metric is the severe error rate. This is
calculated by combining two errors: those who are
predicted to get •B in the college-level class but are actually
placed in DE, and those who are predicted to fail the
college-level class but are actually placed directly into that
class.
• The second metric is the remediation rate, which is the
overall percentage of students assigned to DE.
• The third metric is the percentage succeeding at C for those
directly placed into college-level classes, and
• the fourth metric is the overall percentage of students who
are placed directly into the college-level class and are
predicted to succeed.
Who is required to take the Math
Placement Test?
To enroll in a math course above MA 095, all
students must have either successfully
completed the specified prerequisite course (C
or better) or have a valid, qualifying score on a
Math Placement Test. Prerequisite courses and
placement scores are valid for 8 months.
ADA Compliance of ALEKS
• Compliance states that every reasonable
accommodation be made so the student is
provided the same opportunity. ALEKS
developed the Accessible exam and this exam
does provide each and every student the
same experience and from ALEKS the
institution is provided the same detailed
analysis of strengths and weaknesses in math
as every other student.
ALEKS Reading levels
• Basic Math/Prealgebra - most topics are between
reading levels for grades 3-6 with some topics
going up to grade 8.
• Beginning Algebra – most topics are between
reading levels for grades 5-8 with some topics
going up to grade 9.
• Intermediate Algebra – most topics are between
reading levels for grades 5-9 with some topics
going up to grade 10.
• Precalculus – topics are between reading levels
for grades 7-12
Proposed changes to
Mandatory Placement Policy
• To require mandatory placement for all
students seeking to take a mathematics
course at the college who have not been
placed in or successfully completed the
prerequisite at an institution of higher
education in the 8 months prior to the first
day of class
• Remove names of vendors from mandatory
placement policy
Intent
To implement a policy to accurately assess
students’ current prerequisite knowledge for
placement into the math course that will
provide the best opportunity for success
Journal Articles
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Goldfine, L. S. (2009). Seamless Transitions? Institutional, Demographic, and Course-Specific Effects on Transfer Student
Success in Next-In-Sequence Coursework.
Foley-Peres, Kathleen, and Dawn Poirier. "College Math Assessment: SAT Scores Vs. College Math Placement Scores.
"Educational Research Quarterly 32.2 (2008): 41-8. ProQuest. Web. 26 Aug. 2014.
Marwick, J. D. (2004). Charting a path to success: The association between institutional placement policies and the academic
success of Latino students. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 28(3), 263-280.
Belfield, C., & Crosta, P. M. (2012). Predicting success in college: The importance of placement tests and high school
transcripts.
Bailey, T. (2009). Challenge and opportunity: Rethinking the role and function of developmental education in community
college. New Directions for Community Colleges, 2009(145), 11-30.
Kowski, L. E. (2013). Does high school performance predict college math placement?. Community College Journal of
Research and Practice, 37(7), 514-527.
Amey, M. J., & Long, P. N. (1998). Developmental course work and early placement: Success strategies for underprepared
community college students.Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 22(1), 3-10.
Reisel, J. R., Jablonski, M., Hosseini, H., & Munson, E. (2012). Assessment of factors impacting success for incoming college
engineering students in a summer bridge program. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and
Technology, 43(4), 421-433.
Fine, A., Duggan, M., & Braddy, L. (2009). Removing remediation requirements: Effectiveness of intervention
programs. Primus, 19(5), 433-446.
Knowlton, E. H. (2011). An Intervention Strategy Designed to Reduce Math Remediation Rates at Community Colleges.
Northcentral University.
Ahlgren, A., & Harper, M. (2011). Assessment and Placement through Calculus I at the University of Illinois. NOTICES OF THE
AMS, 58(10).
Reddy, A. A., & Harper, M. (2013). ALEKS-based Placement at the University of Illinois. In Knowledge Spaces (pp. 51-68).
Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Request for Feedback
Please send feedback to oneal@grcc.edu by
Friday, October 27 so that the Math Department
can consider your feedback before the final
presentation to AGC on Tuesday, November 11
Thank You