Objective: Standardized placement tests remain the primary means by which new community college students are assessed and placed in the hierarchy of math and English coursework. A growing body of evidence indicates that placement tests tend to underestimate students’ likelihood of achieving passing grades in college-level courses, leading to students being misplaced in developmental coursework, slowing their academic progress, and increasing their likelihood of dropping out of college. This article discusses the results of a statewide research effort to improve the accuracy of student placement in math and English in the California Community College system. Method: Decision tree methods were applied to high school and college transcript data to identify key measures of high school achievement that predict performance in nine levels of community college math courses (three developmental and six college level) and four levels of community college English courses (three developmental and one college level). Results: Cumulative high school grade point average (GPA) is the most consistently useful predictor of performance across levels of math and English coursework, and a higher GPA is necessary to signal readiness for college-level coursework in math than is necessary to signal readiness for college-level coursework in English. In addition, cumulative GPA combined with specific indications of progress in the high school curriculum is frequently useful for predicting performance in math among direct matriculants and for predicting performance in both math and English among nondirect matriculants. Conclusion: Drawing on the findings, placement rules that colleges can apply directly in their placement processes are developed and validated.

中文翻译：

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使用多种高中成绩衡量标准提高加州社区大学的安置准确率

目标：标准化分班考试仍然是评估新社区大学生并将其置于数学和英语课程等级的主要手段。越来越多的证据表明，分班考试往往会低估学生在大学水平课程中取得及格成绩的可能性，导致学生在发展课程中被错位，减缓他们的学业进步，并增加他们辍学的可能性。本文讨论了在加州社区学院系统中提高学生在数学和英语方面的安置准确性的全州研究工作的结果。方法：决策树方法被应用于高中和大学成绩单数据，以确定高中成绩的关键指标，这些指标可以预测九个级别的社区大学数学课程（三个发展水平和六个大学水平）和四个级别的社区大学英语课程（三个发展水平）的表现。和一个大学水平）。结果：累积高中平均绩点 (GPA) 是跨数学和英语课程水平的最有用的预测指标，与表明准备好参加大学水平的数学课程相比，GPA 需要更高的 GPA大学水平的英语课程。此外，累积 GPA 与高中课程进展的具体指示相结合，通常可用于预测直接入学者的数学成绩以及预测非直接入学者的数学和英语成绩。结论：根据调查结果，大学可以直接在其安置过程中应用的安置规则得到了开发和验证。