The report outlines six recommendations to update college math placements and policies:
1. Begin the placement support process early to ensure entering students are ready for college-level math.
2. Use multiple factors to determine whether students should be placed into developmental courses and which developmental or gateway courses are most appropriate.
3. Require test makers to align placement tests with differentiated math pathways and improve their predictive value.
4. Strengthen the role of student supports—especially advising—in the placement process.
5. Prioritize student academic and career goals in the placement process. In particular, keep STEM-aspiring students on STEM pathways.
6. Create a bridging mechanism from non-algebra pathways into algebra pathways.
“Upwards of 60 percent of entering community college students are placed into developmental education, and unfortunately, the outcomes for students who start in developmental education are low,” said Lara K. Couturier, program director at Jobs for the Future.
Those statistics prompted stakeholders to rethink developmental education.
“How can we teach it in ways that are more accommodating to students’ needs and that are not set up in a way that there’s a hurdle before students can enter college-ready courses?” she asked.
Math placement practices and policies are different everywhere, which makes it hard for students to know or anticipate what is expected of them.
In addition, collaborating with K-12 educators could help students achieve better math success.
“A key area of work needs to be close collaboration between K-12 and community colleges. There’s no alignment between the definition of what preparedness looks like in K-12 and in higher education,” Couturier said.
The Call to Action isn’t the only effort to improve math placement practices.
A report from LearningWorks and Policy Analysis for California Education outlines inherent problems with math placement exams. Higher education policy analyst Pamela Burdman asks if math placement exams send the majority of community college students to remedial math courses, thus preventing their degree completion.
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