The Challenges of Assessment and Placement: Thoughts on Saxon and Morante's 2014 Study for the Journal of Developmental Education

Hello readers! Happy Monday! For our first post this week, we want to turn your attention to an interesting article, which ran in the Winter 2014 edition of the Journal of Developmental Education. Written by D.P. Saxon and E.A. Morante, "Effective Student Assessment and Placement Challenges and Recommendations" explores the challenges of student assessment and placement methods within the greater structure of modern developmental education redesign movements. It also provides a few recommendations for what its authors deem “common inadequacies in college assessment and placement processes.”
 
The authors begin by arguing that placement exams are extremely important to first-year college students. They state plainly that making sure students wind up in the correct courses is crucial to their future success. Citing a study by Hunter Boylan, they contend that research proves mandatory assessment and placement exams are effective, assuming institutions have already established evidence that their developmental courses and instruction are “quality” attributes.
 
With this in mind, many challenges remain. To begin with, the authors say, “No test gives an absolutely exact measure of skills or any other variable.” Worse, many of these tests fail to include “other measures.” This is particularly true of affective characteristics, which the authors point out account for nearly 41% of a student’s grade. These characteristics—which included prior employment, confidence levels, anxiety, attitude, etc.—typically fall into the realm where “life and college” intersect. This means that affective characteristics tend to place math within the greater context of a student’s life and thereby become very important for their future success (particularly for first-year college students taking their first college-level math course). 
 
The authors also point out that many institutions suffer from inadequate and low-performing advising systems, while others often fail to enforce mandatory placement policies. In the end, they suggest that institutions—particularly those in the middle of large-scale redesigns—should take a series of steps to ensure success. Colleges should help students transition from high school to college, require mandatory assessment and advising for all incoming students, coordinate assessment services, and modify placement tests to directly address skills deficiencies. They should also strengthen bridge programs, use more effective test cut score ranges, and learn to evaluate the placement process systematically.

For more please see:
Saxon, D.P., Morante, E.A. “Effective Student Assessment and Placement Challenges and Recommendations.” Journal of Developmental Education, Volume 37, Issue 3, Spring 2014. Pages 24-31.