Group+1+Resources


 * New report from Getting Past Go on state approaches to and supports for innovations in placement assessment**

**Interesting to see how issues around placement assessment are beginning to "play" in the national media; see, for example, this article from The Washington Monthly. She doesn't get everything right but it's reasonably well-written and generally thoughtful--this journal gets read by influential policy public types, it wouldn't be surprising for the ideas to get some traction in the media and policy Internet echo chamber...**

** Report Questions Validity of Measures of Students' Need for Remediation **

=== The predictive value of the tests that most community colleges use to decide which students should need developmental courses before doing college-level work is "not as strong as many would assume," and the institutions might be better off using multiple -- and different sorts of -- measures to assess which students need remediation, two researchers say in a new study. The study is one of several in the "Assessment of Evidence" series published by the Community College Research Center. ===

[|Aligned Expectations? A Closer Look at College Admissions and Placement Tests, Achieve, Inc. report]
===Here's Joe Montgomery's summary of the CCRC white paper, "Assessing Developmental Assessment in Community Colleges," Katherine Hughes and Judith Scott-Clayton, CCRC Working Paper No. 19, February 2011. The full paper is available at [|the CCRC web site]. Thanks, Joe!===

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CA Student Success Conference presentation on new approaches to placement assessment:[| "Assessor, Assess Thyself"...]

Speaking of California, Joe and I are tracking down some info on the current approach to placement assessment in that huge and sprawling 2-year college system; meanwhile,if you have some time you might peruse [|the threaded discussion at this web link]: the CA system is debating some changes to their system around defining and validating prerequisites but the discussion here includes a lot of interesting perspectives on placement and diagnostic assessment relevant to our deliberations...

** Standardization/High School/K-12 issues ** [|**http://gettingpastgo.org/blog/2010/05/24/the-coexistence-of-consistency-and-creativity-in-remedial-education-reform/**] This is a 30,000 foot level article on standardization of developmental education. Not much detailed information.

[|**http://gettingpastgo.org/blog/2011/01/18/common-core-value-getting-the-most-of-the-standards/**] This includes a brief description of the Common Core State Standards Initiative and includes a link which allows you to view a map of which states have adopted the standards (Washington has not, but is in the distinct minority). There is also a link to the Florida Postsecondary Education Readiness Test website. On that website (Appendix A), there is “A Guide to Developing a Customized Placement Test.” This test has replaced Accuplacer in Florida.

** Placement and instructional strategies ** [|**http://gettingpastgo.org/should-policy-clearly-articulate-the-need-for-differentiated-delivery-models-for-students-depending-on-their-level-of-developmental-placement/**] This article includes a list of key issues in placement and reduction of time spent in remedial education. There are specific examples of models and strategies for students placing at different levels (just below college level, 1-2 levels below college level, and 3 or more levels below college level). The example listed for 3 or more levels below college level is I-BEST.

[|**http://gettingpastgo.org/blog/2011/03/10/creating-plans-that-become-policies-the-role-of-the-legislature-in-instructional-strategies/**] Blog post about legislation in Texas related to a statewide effort to increase the effectiveness of placement and remedial education.