Math Placement Project Convening

Funded by College Spark Washington

Tacoma Community College - April 25, 2024

INTRODUCTIONS & ICEBREAKER

AGENDA

• 8:30am-9:00am – Meet and Greet (Breakfast available starting at 8:30am)

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• 9:00am-9:15am - Introduction and Welcome Breakfast

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• 9:15am-10:45am - Inequity by Design Presentation

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• 10:45am-11:30am – Equitable Placement for Other Populations

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• 11:30am-12:15pm – Lunch and Discussions

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• 12:15pm-1:15pm - Inequity By Design Afternoon Session

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• 1:15pm-3:00pm – Pilot College Information (Open to All)

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Setting the Stage: Math Placement Project Overview

CC BY 4.0, except where otherwise noted.

Placement at Washington’s 34 CTCs

• 27 use HS Coursework for math placement
• 8 report using HS GPA for math placement
• 20 use DSP/GSP in their placement process
• 4 additional colleges are in the process of creating a DSP/GSP
• 13 report using both GSP/DSP and HS transcripts

Placement Agreement

Within two years of graduating from a Washington high school, students may use either the letter grade earned in the second term of a high school mathematics course or their overall cumulative high school GPA to determine their mathematics placement at any of the Washington Community and Technical Colleges (CTCs) piloting this agreement. The placement options outlined set a minimum guaranteed placement; individual CTCs may use their own locally determined processes to place a student into a higher level mathematics course.

Placement Grid

Notes

• Second term grades are required for placement, but first term grades could be used for “preliminary” or “provisional” placement.
• For any course, grade, or GPA not covered, mathematics placement is determined by the CTC.
• As needed, colleges may substitute an equivalent course in order to fulfill the placement recommendations outlined.
• Placement via cumulative GPA is only available for students who have graduated from high school.
• 2024-2025 Pilot Colleges: Cascadia College, Everett Community College, Lower Columbia College, and Renton Technical College

Looking to the Future: Math Placement Project

• Pilot Colleges
• Cascadia College
• Everett Community College
• Lower Columbia College
• Renton Technical College
• Math Placement Project Grant | SBCTC

CC BY 4.0, except where otherwise noted.

Goals and Deliverables

Goals of Placement Project:

• Implement a universal transcript placement policy for regional community and technical colleges.
• Create a global policy for identifying and tracking placement in ctcLink.
• Elevate Bridge to College agreements and courses.
• Create space and sustainable learning environments for continued professional development and learning in the areas of placement.
• SBCTC overarching goal – comprehensive guidance on placement – supportive guidance for community and technical colleges. 

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CC BY 4.0, except where otherwise noted.

Inequity By Design Presentation

Christian Granlund, Natasha RosenBlatt and Danika Martinez

Equitable Placement for Other Populations

Facilitation Led by Dawn Draus and Guava Jordan

Placement for Other Populations

What populations aren’t covered by the grid?

• Veterans
• HS+, GED
• Running Start
• Private High Schools, Homeschool, HS outside WA
• Returning Students, Older w/ or w/o college
• Transcripts from other Countries
• Corrections
• Students who didn’t take Algebra 2 (CTE, skill center)
• International Students

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Inequity by Design Recommendations

Immediate Recommendations

1. Center students of color in the redesign of placement practices and ensure that they experience the enrollment and placement process as welcoming, trusting, and empowering
2. Transform placement practices and transcript-based placement policies to maximize student access to college level courses
3. Investigate and acknowledge the impact of current placement practices on students of color
4. Investigate and acknowledge the impact of inequitable grading distribution and access to math for students of color in K-12

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Aligned Actions Include

1. Broaden high school GPA and course grade thresholds in transcript-based placement criteria
2. Reduce/eliminate use of test based placement practices for recent high school graduates
3. Offer a range of flexible, non-test based assessment options
4. Eliminate/condense precollege course sequences longer than one quarter

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Recommendation 2: Transform Placement

Action 1: Eliminate under-placement through the utilization of transcript-based placement as the default method for all recent high school graduates.

Action 2: Broaden the high school GPA and course grade thresholds used in college-level placement criteria to increase access to and success in college-level courses. Prioritize approaches that improve racial equity.

Action 3: Mitigate shortcomings to transcript-based placement by offering a range of flexible, non-test based assessment options to maximize the number of students who enter and complete transfer-level coursework within a one-year timeframe.

Action 4: Eliminate or condense precollege course sequences that place students in precollege courses for longer than one quarter. Explore alternatives to precollege courses to maximize students’ likelihood of entering and completing college-level math and English.

Action 5: Prioritize communication to students, families and high school counselors about their assessment and placement options.

Action 6: Publicly post information about placement methods and outcomes on both college and statewide platforms. Include data on underplacement (i.e., students who meet college placement criteria but take precollege courses).

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Table Discussion

How could your college build from our grid and inequity by design recommendations to design placement for populations not served by our grid?

• What is currently underway? How is it going?�
• What still needs to happen?

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George

38 years old

works in industry

Maria

25 years old

has her GED

owns her own cleaning company

How would you place these students?

What additional information would you need/want?

Whole group share out

What is one interesting strategy or consideration that you heard?

• Use the info already in ctcLink from other colleges
• ACPL - academic credit for prior learning (EvCC)
• GED math score
• Renton Technical College
• Summary of GED Placement in OR and WA
• Use old HS Transcript with GSP

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Lunch

Inequity By Design Afternoon Session

Christian Granlund, Natasha RosenBlatt and Danika Martinez

Break

Pilot College Kick-Off

Afternoon Plan

1. Kickoff and General Information
2. Pilot College Guidance
3. ctcLink and Placement
4. Data Collection and Research
5. Pilot Colleges Best Practices Discussion
6. Next Steps

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General Information - Pilot College Discussion

• $10,000 Grant - How does your college plan to spend/use this money?
• What will your next steps be?
• What will this look like for your college?
• Who will be doing this work?

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Pilot College Guidance

• Math Placement Project Guidance Document
• Math Placement Project Webpage Math Placement Project Grant | SBCTC

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ctcLink and Placement – Test Results Overview

• Pilot Colleges will utilize Test Results to track this placement in ctcLink
• Test Results (Test Scores) are global
• Only one college will need to enter a global test score
• All colleges will be able to view the data
• Data will be more globally available for reporting and metrics

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ctcLink and Placement – Test Results Overview Continued

• Utilizing the guidance document, colleges should coordinate with their campus stakeholder groups to establish business processes for collecting and entering this data
• Functionality to batch upload Test Results is available
• Colleges will need to update their applicable Enrollment Requirements for students to self-enroll
• Students will be able to view their Test Results in HCX (Mobile)

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Example of HCX Student View

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ctcLink and Placement – Additional Functionality

• External Education will be leveraged to track High School Graduation data
• A new query is in development to support this initiative
• The current version of the query returns test score, enrollment, and high school graduation data
• Query will be available in production by summer term

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Example of current query version

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ctcLink and Placement – ctcLink Security

• Staff will need to coordinate with their manager and/or Local Security Administrator (LSA) to ensure they have the security they need to support their work
• Role Security (page access):
• Test Results
• External Education
• Updating/building Enrollment Requirements
• Query Viewer
• Test ID SACR Security
• Test ID = HSMATHGRID

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ctcLink and Placement – April 30^th Session

• We will provide an overview of:
• Entering student test scores in ctcLink
• Entering high school degree information in ctcLink
• Defining Tests for Requisites and adding a test to an existing Enrollment Requirement
• We will also be available to support your Enrollment Requirement builders as they make changes in production

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Data Collection and Research - Overview

• Discussion of placement data usage on your campus
• Reporting capabilities of the PS Query
• Potential query enhancements
• Changes to math outcomes or placement

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Data Collection - Use of Placement Data on Your Campus

1. In what ways do you currently use placement data on your campus? Are there additional uses you are considering?
2. Do you capture all math placement methods in ctcLink Test Scores? If not, which methods are you not capturing there?
3. For those who have been using data to redesign math placement methods for increased equity, what data has been the most beneficial?
4. What roadblocks have you encountered?

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Reporting Capabilities of Placement PS Query

What will it do?

•The PS Query will allow colleges to identify which students are enrolled in their first math course who have a valid TBP.

•The query will show grades so that researchers can generate course success rates for students who have a TBP.

•SBCTC Policy Research plans to migrate Math and English course success data to a dashboard so that colleges can more easily access Math and English course success rates by instruction mode.

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Placement PS Query

Limitations

•Currently the query will not provide data about enrolled students who do not have a math placement.

•The query is limited to enrollment in a first math course after Transcript Based Placement; other placement methods aren’t captured.

•It’s not going to show which placement methods are most common on your campus or where various placement methods tend to place students.

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Possible Query Enhancement

The Campus Solutions Support team will help explore whether additional placement methods can be added to the query from ctcLink Test Scores.

Would course outcome data for students who do not have a valid placement in test scores also be of value at your campus?

Some things to consider:

•Are all math placement methods captured in test scores at your college? (Do you use milestones for math placement?)

•Do you rely on entry codes for students using directed self-placement or other placement methods?

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Data Collection and Research

What changes in your math outcomes or placement do you expect to see as a result of participation in this pilot?

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Any final questions for the room?

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Next Steps

• April 30th 1:00pm-3:00pm - CS Support Drop-in
• June 3rd - Implementation Plan Request Due
• TBD - Fall 2024 Convening

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Thank You

Contact Information:

General Inquiries:

Stephanie Rock

Program Administrator of Dual Credit & Strategic Enrollment Initiatives

srock@sbctc.edu

360-704-1002

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Math-Related Inquiries:

Dawn Draus

Policy Associate for Math Pathways and Placement

ddraus@sbctc.edu

360-704-4312

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Math Placement Project Team:

Kayley Cruz, Dawn Draus, Guava Jordan, Noah Overby, Stephanie Rock & Jamie Traugott

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CC BY 4.0, except where otherwise noted.