Improving Indicators of College Readiness: Methods for Optimally Placing Students Into Multiple Levels of Postsecondary Coursework

• Published in: Educational evaluation and policy analysis Vol. 42; no. 1; pp. 87 - 109
• Main Authors: Leeds, Daniel M., Mokher, Christine G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publishing 01-03-2020; SAGE Publications; American Educational Research Association
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Academic readiness; Accuracy; College Readiness; College students; Community Colleges; Cutting Scores; Developmental Studies Programs; Education policy; Educational evaluation; Educational Indicators; Student Placement; Students; Two Year College Students; Florida; United States > US; high schools; assessment; higher education; educational policy; econometric analysis; secondary data analysis
• ISSN: 0162-3737; 1935-1062
• DOI: 10.3102/0162373719885648

Over half of community college students place into developmental education, resulting in significant financial costs. We extend previous research demonstrating that using placement tests to assign students into developmental courses results in frequent misplacement. We use Florida data to explore the extent to which students are misplaced into their first college course by more than one level. Results suggest that moving away from placement tests and toward other metrics (like high school grade point average [GPA]) may not be as beneficial in Florida as was demonstrated in prior studies. Rather, it may be preferable to choose cutoffs that minimize misplacement than to use new metrics. States should consider their own unique contexts and examine whether they can improve placement accuracy by changing cut scores.