Does Failing a Placement Exam Discourage Underprepared Students from Going to College?

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paco Martorell ◽  
Isaac McFarlin ◽  
Yu Xue
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Administrative Data ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Underprepared Students ◽  
College Level ◽  
Remedial Courses ◽  
New Information ◽  
Exam Scores ◽  
Placement Exam ◽  
Time Required

About one third of college students are required to take remedial courses. Assignment to remediation is generally made on the basis of performance on a placement exam. When students are required to take a placement exam prior to enrolling in college-level courses, assignment to remediation may dissuade students from actually going to college. This is because remediation could increase the time required to complete a degree (because remedial courses do not count toward academic degrees), and also because being identified as needing remediation might have stigma effects or provide students with new information about their unsuitability for college. This paper examines this issue empirically using administrative data from Texas. Using regression discontinuity methods, we find that students whose placement exam scores would require them to be in remediation are no less likely to enroll in college than are students who score just above the remediation placement cutoff.

Student Preparedness and Success in Introductory Psychology

2021 ◽  
pp. 009862832110084
Author(s):  
William S. Altman ◽  
Judith B. Pena-Shaff ◽  
Craig Nicholls ◽  
Cassandra Domingo
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Course Completion ◽  
Introductory Psychology ◽  
College Level ◽  
Remedial Courses ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Placement Exam ◽  
Students Success

Background: Reading comprehension and writing ability are critical to students’ success in introductory psychology. However, these generally are not prerequisites. There is conflicting evidence with regard to the effectiveness of remedial reading and writing classes for students with low placement exam scores. Objectives: To explore whether ACCUPLACER® test scores help predict performance in introductory psychology, and the effectiveness of reading and writing remediation classes in helping students, particularly those with low ACCUPLACER® scores. Method: Logistic regression analyses were used, to explore whether ACCUPLACER® test scores helped predict performance, and whether completing remediation classes helped students pass, controlling for ACCUPLACER® and WritePlacer® scores, at an upstate New York community college, between the years 2010 and 2015. Results: Placement test scores did help to predict successful course completion. There was not a statistically significant difference in successful course completion between students who passed the remedial courses and those who did not take them. Conclusions: Success in introductory psychology requires college-level reading and writing. Remedial courses’ value in students’ success in this class appears relatively small or non-significant. Teaching Implications: We propose solutions that may be more effective, involving embedding the remediation in the course, or in closely linked ancillary sections.

Does the Method of Acceleration Matter? Exploring the Likelihood of College Coursetaking Success Across Four Developmental Education Instructional Strategies

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (9) ◽  
pp. 3-27
Author(s):  
Christine G. Mokher ◽  
Toby J. Park-Gaghan ◽  
Shouping Hu
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Developmental Education ◽  
Instructional Strategies ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Underprepared Students ◽  
College Level ◽  
Success Rates ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Inverse Probability Weighted

Background/Context: Accelerated instructional strategies for developmental education have been promoted as a way to help underprepared students to progress more quickly through college-level coursework. Yet, what remains unknown is whether certain accelerated strategies are more effective than others and whether this initial acceleration may lead to longer term success. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: We examine whether the likelihood of success varies for completion of mathematics and English requirements over 3 years among the Florida students enrolled in courses using one of four developmental instructional strategies: compressed, corequisite, modularized, or contextualized. Population/Participants/Subjects: Our sample includes all first-time-in-college students during the 2015–2016 year who enrolled in all 28 public state colleges and took any developmental education course during the first year. Research Design: We use inverse probability-weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) to compare success rates in completion of mathematics and English requirements over 3 years for Florida college students in each of these strategies. Findings/Results: Overall, the results demonstrate variation in the likelihood of success for completion of mathematics and English courses over 3 years among students in different developmental instructional strategies, which suggests that the method of acceleration does matter. Corequisite courses tended to lead to greater long-term gains in math and, to an extent, in reading, while contextualized tended to be most effective in writing. Conclusions/Recommendations: Leaders can play an important role in strengthening institutional capacity to effectively implement developmental education reform by developing faculty buy-in, ensuring adequate resources to scale and sustain reform efforts, and using data to inform future decision-making.

scholarly journals Development, Discouragement, or Diversion? New Evidence on the Effects of College Remediation Policy

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Scott-Clayton ◽  
Olga Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
Degree Completion ◽  
Proficiency Test ◽  
Community College System ◽  
College Level ◽  
Remedial Courses ◽  
College Remediation ◽  
College System ◽  
Background Data ◽  
Alternative Hypotheses ◽  
New Evidence

Half of all college students will enroll in remedial coursework but evidence of its effectiveness is mixed. Using a regression-discontinuity design with data from a large urban community college system, we make three contributions. First, we articulate three alternative hypotheses regarding the potential impacts of remediation. Second, in addition to credits and degree completion we examine several underexplored outcomes, including initial enrollment, grades in subsequent courses, and post-treatment proficiency test scores. Finally, we exploit rich high school background data to examine impact heterogeneity by predicted dropout risk. We find that remedial assignment does little to develop students’ skills. But we also find little evidence that it discourages initial enrollment or persistence, except for a subgroup we identify as potentially misassigned to remediation. Instead, the primary effect of remediation appears to be diversionary: students simply take remedial courses instead of college-level courses. These diversionary effects are largest for the lowest-risk students.

scholarly journals Accelerating Scientific Publication in Biology

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald D Vale
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Community ◽  
Scientific Publication ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Postdoctoral Training ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Information ◽  
Funding Agencies ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Time Required ◽  
Catalytic Effects

Scientific publications enable results and ideas to be transmitted throughout the scientific community. The number and type of journal publications also have become the primary criteria used in evaluating career advancement. Our analysis suggests that publication practices have changed considerably in the life sciences over the past thirty years. More experimental data is now required for publication, and the average time required for graduate students to publish their first paper has increased and is approaching the desirable duration of Ph.D. training. Since publication is generally a requirement for career progression, schemes to reduce the time of graduate student and postdoctoral training may be difficult to implement without also considering new mechanisms for accelerating communication of their work. The increasing time to publication also delays potential catalytic effects that ensue when many scientists have access to new information. The time has come for life scientists, funding agencies, and publishers to discuss how to communicate new findings in a way that best serves the interests of the public and the scientific community.

Reengaging Texts, French, and Cultural Narratives

2016 ◽  
pp. 313-336
Author(s):  
Dane Stalcup
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Reflective Writing ◽  
First Year ◽  
College Level ◽  
Cultural Narratives ◽  
First Year College ◽  
First Year College Students ◽  
High Level ◽  
Global Travel

This chapter examines a course model through which first-year college students engage in advanced reflective communication (i.e. discussion, writing, field trip investigations) in order to embrace diverse voices, perspectives, and populations. To determine how freshmen can achieve a high level of multiculturalism and insightful expression at the same time, the author investigates the effectiveness of his freshman-only Reflective Tutorial, “Global Travel through Cultural Studies.” Drawing jointly from the Humanities and experiential learning, this course invites students to embrace conversations and research on global cultural narratives and to interact with spaces outside of the college classroom that both demonstrate and question these narratives. And by synthesizing reflective writing with experiential observation and analysis, the proposed course model promotes effective communication and awareness of diversity that will prepare students for the kind of crosscultural critical thinking that future experiences at the college level, but also the future itself will require.

scholarly journals Pandemic publishing: Medical journals strongly speed up their publication process for COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 1056-1067 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serge P. J. M. Horbach
Keyword(s):  
Peer Review ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Peer Review Process ◽  
Scholarly Journals ◽  
Medical Journals ◽  
Publication Process ◽  
New Information ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Rapid Dissemination ◽  
Time Required

In times of public crises, including the current COVID-19 pandemic, rapid dissemination of relevant scientific knowledge is of paramount importance. The duration of scholarly journals’ publication process is one of the main factors that may hinder quick delivery of new information. Following initiatives of medical journals to accelerate their publication process, this study assesses whether medical journals have managed to speed up their publication process for coronavirus-related articles. It studies the duration of 14 medical journals’ publication processes both during and prior to the current pandemic. Assessing 669 articles, the study concludes that medical journals have indeed strongly accelerated their publication process for coronavirus-related articles since the outbreak of the pandemic: The time between submission and publication has decreased on average by 49%. The largest decrease in number of days between submission and publication of articles was due to a decrease in time required for peer review. For articles not related to COVID-19, no acceleration of the publication process is found. While the acceleration of the publication process is laudable from the perspective of quick information dissemination, it also may raise concerns relating to the quality of the peer review process and of the resulting publications.

College Students' IQS

1967 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 743-747 ◽  
Author(s):  
John B. Murray
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
College Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
College Level ◽  
College Age ◽  
Iq Scores ◽  
Local Norms

Wechsler-Bellevue IQ scores obtained by college level Ss were reviewed. Some indications suggest a rise in college students' IQ level. WAIS scores for college-age Ss in different areas of the United States were compared in the interest of gathering local norms, as an aid to guidance personnel in recommending students for college eligibility.

Promoting the Inclusion of Mindfulness and Contemplative Practices in the College Classroom

2020 ◽  
pp. 237337992092584
Author(s):  
Heather L. Vilvens ◽  
Debra L. Frame ◽  
Patrick C. Owen
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
College Students ◽  
College Level ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Contemplative Practices ◽  
College Life ◽  
Regional Campus ◽  
Health Course ◽  
Mindfulness Practices ◽  
Work Family

College students may be particularly stressed as they struggle to balance college life, work, family, and relationships, while engaging in career exploration and attempting to find meaning and purpose in their lives. The current practitioner action research project explored incorporating mindfulness and contemplative practices into the higher education classroom to uncover students’ perceptions of how useful the activities might be for managing their personal stress and anxiety. Thirty-two freshman and sophomore students from a regional campus of a large university consented to participate in the semester-long study, where brief, weekly mindfulness activities were integrated into in-class and out-of-class assignments during an introductory Personal Health course. Study findings indicated that the majority of student participants found mindfulness practices were helpful when it came to decreasing stress and anxiety or relaxing. Making time outside the classroom to practice mindfulness behaviors, however, was a barrier. These findings have both practical and positive implications for future higher education classroom interventions. As such, the authors contend that college-level instructors should incorporate mindfulness and contemplative activities into the curricula of their health education courses to help college students master mindfulness strategies and encourage their use in reducing stress and anxiety.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document