Enlarging The Sorting Hat: Multiple Measures For Placement

1. Enlarging The Sorting Hat: Multiple Measures For Placement brad.bostian@cpcc.edu

2. Let’s Review Our Assumptions Placing some students into developmental education is a good idea Placement should be based on the knowledge students have when they enter college

3. First Assumption Placing some students into developmental education is a good idea After all, according to Clifford Adelman, students placed into multiple levels of dev. ed. fail to complete due to their lack of academic preparation, not the dev. ed. track itself

4. Second Assumption Placement should be based on the knowledge students enter college with ACT defines college readiness as the level of achievement a student needs to be ready to enroll and succeed —without remediation— in credit-bearing first-year postsecondary courses

5. And These Sub-Assumptions • College readiness is about content knowledge • Placement tests predict college success • Placement test items reflect college work • Students understand the importance of the placement tests • Students prepare for placement tests • Students survive developmental education • Developmental education improves college readiness • Developmental education solves the right problem • A blanket approach to placement can cover the right students

6. First Some History

7. A Typical Chart From The CCRC Study

8. Another Typical Chart From The Study

9. Math In-Order Course Completion and Enrollment – NC TOTAL: 8% Math students don’t get through Enrolled 9% GK Algebra Passed 16% Not completed 2% Not enrolled 7% Enrolled 22% 1 level below Passed 31% Not completed 6% Not enrolled 9% Enrolled 43% 2 levels below Passed 54% Not completed 12% Not enrolled 11% Enrolled 77% 3+ levels below Referred to Level 3+ 1,507 Not completed 23% • Sample: 2002-2005 cohorts, • tracked for three years Not enrolled 23% From Dr. Tom Bailey, CCRC, presented to NC State Board of Community Colleges. Does not include students who didn’t test

11. Our Students Aren’t Getting Through

12. Not Getting Through

13. Research Supports Using Multiple Measures To Place Students

14. We Could Flip The Ratio Of College Level To Developmental Level

15. Students Avoid Developmental Classes

16. The Mean HS GPA In NC Was 2.55

18. What Should The Expiration Date Be?

19. Predictive Power Diminishes Gradually

20. How Long Are Transcripts Still Predictive? We Need More Data

21. How Long Are Transcripts Still Predictive? We Need More Data

22. What Will Happen To College Course Grades?

23. CPCC College Math Grades Should Go Up, Not Down

24. High School English Grades Aren’t Very Predictive

25. What About Other States? Long Beach CC

26. Here Is A Study From Long Beach CC In CA

27. At Long Beach CC, They Flipped The Ratio

28. How Does This Affect Cost Over Five Years?

29. That Depends How We Measure Cost

30. Cost Benefit Changes Will Be More Incremental • An increase of 15% in the rate of recent high school graduates completing college level math in their first year might take a 13% graduation rate to 15% • And lower the cost per completer from $112,000 to $102,000 • Moving to 100% completion of college math by year 2 would take a 13% graduation rate to 27% • And reduce cost per completer to $76,000

31. Are All NC HS GPA’s Equally Predictive?

32. Is Grade Inflation An Issue? ---*--- HS GPA ---*--- College GPA

33. What If The Student Doesn’t Have A HS Transcript? • The CCRC study only got data on HS GPA for 37% of students • There will be data and matching issues • Colleges vary in collection rates, from >90% to <40%, with average ~60% • CPCC’s Rate Is Currently About 50%

34. Our New Statewide Policy Students place college level with 2.6 unweighted high school GPA by 2015 Fall if Transcripts are 5 years old or less and have FRC codes 1-4 Colleges will make local policies for out of state transcripts and missing FRC codes Colleges may require students with GPA between 2.6-3.0 to take additional math labs for MAT 151 through MAT 171

35. Future-Ready Core: Course of Study The Core (22 units) - 4 credits of English - 4 credits of Mathematics - 4 credits of Social Studies - 3 credits of Science - 1 credit of Health/Physical Education • 6 Elective Credits (required) • 2 credits from CTE, Arts or World Languages • 4 credit Concentration (recommended)

36. * 4 1 2 3 4th Math Geometry Algebra I Algebra II Drafting Statistics Pre-Calculus Engineering Accounting I AP Calculus 3 2 1 4 Future-Ready Core Math Sequence Eligible for UNC System + + Courses such as… + or 1 2 3 Integrated I + Integrated II + Integrated III Eligible for comm. college Courses such as… In rare instances, students will be exempted from the Future-Ready Core math sequence. In cases where parents, teachers, counselors, principals and the students believe a different path is appropriate, the student will take the following sequence… Upon Approval Math Substitution Algebra II/Geometry or Integrated II Future-Ready Core Algebra I or Integrated I Applied Math I Applied Math II *N.C.G.S. §115C-81(b) will remain in effect for students with learning disabilities in mathematics that will prevent those students from mastery Algebra I content. This student will be required to take 4 math classes aligned with their goals and abilities.

37. Multiple Measures Policy Continued • Students not meeting HS GPA 2.6 will place college level with: English: ACT Reading 20 OR ACT English 18 SAT Writing 500 OR SAT Critical Reading 500 Math: ACT Math 22 SAT Math 500 • Others will take Diagnostic Placement Tests *No student should be placed into basic skills by placement test score alone, and without an additional measure

38. Reviewing Makes A Difference From November 4, 2011 to June 27, 2012, students took 17,592 practice tests • 36% did the review • They went up 11 points on math, 6 on English • 46% went up at least one level • Saving $400,000 in unnecessary remediation

39. Does Reviewing Make A Difference? Only 44% of colleges said they provided any practice tests, and “. . . many students did not know they were available” (Venezia, Bracco, & Nodine, 2010). “It wasn’t a test of what you could do, but about what you could remember from a long time ago.” “I came straight after high school, and I was doing algebra and geometry. After you are at so high a level, to come to college and get an assessment on just all basics—you’re really not in that mindset anymore. Even right after high school, you’re on to bigger and better problems, so to come back in [and do] fractions— what are fractions?”

40. Should Placement Tests Themselves Change? Current tests have no projects, no research, no media, no writing process, no revision, no presentations, no formatting, no group work, no lab work, no purpose of interest to the student, no authentic assignments, no active learning, etc. Diagnostics will help manage learning

41. My Theory Of College Readiness

42. Let’s Review Our Assumptions Placing some students into developmental education is a good idea Placement should be based on the knowledge students have when they enter college

43. And These Sub-Assumptions • College readiness is about content knowledge • Placement tests predict college success • Placement test items reflect college work • Students understand the importance of the placement tests • Students prepare for placement tests • Students survive developmental education • Developmental education improves college readiness • Developmental education solves the right problem • A blanket approach to placement can cover the right students

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