Supporting the State’s 113 Community Colleges to
Transform Remediation to Increase Student Completion and Equity
January 8, 2016
Greetings Team Leaders,
We are asking all 34 colleges participating in CAP this year to share local data on placement, completion, and course offerings.
Our goal is to help you develop a strong proposal for the new $60 million “Basic Skills Outcomes and Transformation” program. The Chancellor’s Office has announced that this spring, colleges will be able to apply for up to $1.5 million three-year grants to implement reforms to placement and remediation. This includes scaling up the kind of accelerated curricula you’ve developed with CAP -- indeed, the California Acceleration Project was cited by name in the original legislation, AB770.
You will need to work with your institutional research office and perhaps your assessment coordinator to get the information for your college. Please bring the information to the CAP Winter Institute January 29-30.
If you need assistance, or your researcher has questions, please feel free to contact me –
Sincerely,
Katie
Katie Hern, Ed.D.
Co-Founder, California Acceleration Project
[Data to be provided by Institutional Research Office]
Student Placement in Math Curriculum
[College Name]
Fall 2015Incoming students who participated in placement & enrolled in any course / All
Assessed/
Placed / Eligible for transfer level / Eligible for
1 level below / Eligible
for
2 levels below / Eligible
for 3+ levels below
% / # / % / # / % / # / % / # / % / #
All
African American
Asian
Hispanic
White
Other
Disproportionate Impact in Assessment:
Under state guidelines, no group’s access to the transfer level should be lower than 80% that of white students. Take the % of white students eligible for the transfer level and multiply it by .8 -- if any other group’s eligibility for the transfer level is lower than that, you have disproportionate impact.
* Incoming students who participate in the assessment/placement process and enroll in any course at the college (not necessarily math/English). Do not count life-long learners who do not go through the matriculation process (students taking only PE or pottery, not participating in assessment/placement).
** If another racial/ethnic group comprises more than 5% of population, add a row.
*** When calculating the disaggregated percentages of students placed into each level, the denominator for each group is the # of each group who assessed/placed (e.g., of all African-Americans assessed, how many African Americans placed into transfer-level, 1-level-below, etc.).
[For this information, team leaders should consult with Institutional Research office and whoever coordinates assessment/placement on campus]
Placement Rules
[College Name]
Fall 2015
1) Please summarize the rules according to which students were placed into various levels of the basic skills/transfer math sequence, including the testing instrument, cut scores, and any multiple measures considered.
Example: College X Policy as of Fall 2015
To gain access to college math (Statistics, Liberal Arts Math, College Algebra), students must score above 90 on the Accuplacer algebra test or above a 50 on the Accuplacer college math test. Students scoring within 5 points of either line can be advanced to college math based on a weighted multiple measures formula (points are added for a grade of A or B in their last math course, high school GPA of 3.0-4.0 (B to A), successfully completion of Trigonometry, College Algebra/Precalculus, or Calculus.) Higher scores on the Accuplacer college math test are required for eligibility for Trigonometry, Precalculus or Calculus.
2) For Fall 2015, what percentage of incoming students were placed into transfer-level coursework based on measures other than a test score (e.g., recognition of high school coursework, GPA, or other multiple measures)?
[Data to be provided by the Institutional Research Office]
Completion of Transfer-Level Math
[College Name]
Fall 2012-Spring 2015
Students’ Initial Math Enrollment / % Completing Transfer-Level Math in 3 YearsTransfer Level
One Level-Below Transfer
Two Levels Below Transfer
Three or More Levels Below Transfer
Overall
For students placing below transfer-level, please use the Basic Skills Cohort Tracker. For students beginning in the transfer level, please use internal data. To be consistent with the Cohort Tracker, the transfer-level group should include only first-time takers in the discipline and all repeated attempts within the three-year timeframe.
[Team leaders should get this information from the fall course schedule.]
Course Schedule Data – Section Offerings – Math
[College Name]
Fall 2015
Level in Basic Skills/Transfer Sequence / # Sections OfferedInitial Transfer-Level Courses*
One Level Below Transfer
Two Levels Below Transfer
Three or More Levels Below Transfer
* Includes courses into which incoming students are placed through the matriculation process.