Placement Grant Overview
Graciously funded by College Spark
Washington community and technical colleges continue to work towards more equitable placement practices. This includes moving away from standardized testing and focusing on high school transcripts evaluation and implementing guided self-placement models designed for students to reflect on prior experiences with reading, writing and math. Although colleges have made significant strides in placement assessment, inequities still exist, especially for historically underserved student populations and BIPOC students.
The purpose of this project is to create a cohort of 6-9 colleges who are willing to share and learn from each other as they invest in examining and revising their current practices to ensure that all students who are currently eligible for placement into college level courses are being enrolled into those courses. Additionally, this work should support colleges in moving forward towards common practices that are consistent and transparent for students.
We are reaching out to gauge your college’s interest in this work for the 2023-2024 school year. Below are the goals of the project, general time commitment, and recommendations on who should participate.
Goals of Placement Project:
- Implement a universal math transcript placement policy for regional community and technical colleges.
- Create a global policy for identifying and tracking English and math 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.
Colleges will agree to:
- Examine the inequities that may exist in their current placement policies and practices that disproportionally affect their underserved and BIPOC student populations.
- Assess, adopt, and explore new approaches to math placement including agreeing to the same methodology for evaluating math courses on a high school transcript for placement into college level math, including Bridge to College courses.
- Adopt SBCTC recommended policies for identifying and tracking placement in ctcLink.
- Actively participate and engage in convenings, workgroups, and individual check ins with SBCTC staff.
SBCTC staff will agree to:
- Support college efforts to collect, analyze, and share their placement data.
- Develop ctcLink QRGs for placement/best practices for engaging in ctcLink.
- Provide subject matter expertise.
- Provide the space for colleges to connect/facilitate cohort college convenings.
- Ensure all stakeholders can provide feedback and input during the project.
Recommended college participants:
- Math faculty
- Dean or Director of Advising
- Placement coordinators (any staff involved in placement process and building course requisites in ctcLink)
Time commitment:
- October 2023-June 2024
- Attend virtual, hybrid, and in person meetings twice a quarter (based on need & preference)
- Commit time to make necessary changes to current placement practices
- Examine current institutional placement data.
- Collaborate with K-12 professionals around common use of high school courses for placement.
- Identify best practices for transparent placement coding in ctcLink.