Notes from Math Department Roundtable

Notes from Math Department Roundtable

On Placement and Prerequisites

April 23, 2008

1. Should the Math Department change the two year limit on the validity of COMPASS Placement scores and ACT scores?

A lengthy discussion was held. The following points were made:

• ACT has no official policy on how long scores are valid
• Nicole surveyed various community colleges in our area and found the most common ranges were from 1-3 years; using one year for math was not uncommon (COD does this).
• Concern was expressed that since students take the ACT their junior year in high school, the 2 yr limit means that the validity expires before they have completed two years at ECC. So a student who has an ACT score of 23, which places her into a 100 level course, may “lose” that placement if she does not enroll in a math course her first year.
• The option of eliminating the use of ACT scores for placement and requiring placement only through COMPASS was considered.

ACTION: After careful consideration and discussion, the decision was made to keep the current policy of two year validity.

2. At the joint meeting with the Counseling Staff on 9/27/07, it was suggested that we need to be more explicit with students who place into developmental math courses about the consequences of their placement.

ACTION: The math department will develop a Placement Intervention Model

• The goal of these actions will be to further increase the accuracy of our math placement. There is agreement that some students who have an adequate high school math background but place into MTH 096 might be able to place higher if additional options and information were made available. Presently the students are given information about their math placement along with all their other placement information and do not fully understand the consequences.
• The existing workshops for preparing for the placement exam are one tool already available.
• Mary Ann will look into the possibility of sending a separate letter to the students about their math placement, beginning in summer 2008.
• The department will include this project as one of its goals for 2008-2009. The project will look at options such as re-instating courses such as MTH 092 and 094 in summer 2009. Additional means of support for students to improve their math placement will be explored.
• Gary will talk to Victoria Roush about changing the minimum time that must elapse between retakes of the placement exam (presently it is 24 hours).

3. The November 30, 2004, Math Department Minutes state:

A placement issue has recently come up: should a student be allowed to retake the placement test after being placed by the test in a certain course and afterthe course has been completed, in order to "leapfrog"the next course in the sequence? Our policy hasalways been, and still is, that the answer is NO. Should

we change the policy in the future? Opinions wereexpressed on both sides of the question, and therewas an agreement to address the issue in depth at

a future meeting.

• Gary provided information about what other colleges do on this question. No strong reason for change was put forward.

ACTION: No change in our policy.

4. The April 11, 2006 Math Department Minutes state:

CLEP course credit equivalency testing The question was discussed as to whether ECC should accept passing CLEP exams for college credit. Since the trigonometry exam will be discontinued, and since the college algebra exam is therefore the only one that is relevant to ECC, it was agreed, unanimously, that we should accept the CLEP college algebra exam for course credit.

Lauren reported that a limited number of students take the College Algebra CLEP exam annually. Victoria Roush said it seems to be working.

5. Why is there so much content overlap between MTH 096 and MTH 098? Why not have less in each? What about combining algebra and geometry?

• Harry led a discussion of this topic. There seemed to be a good deal of enthusiasm to further examine the options on this.
• The point was made that research should be examined on the success of various approaches.
• On a related issue, the suggestion was made that an online geometry course might be a good option for our students.

ACTION: This project will be taken on has a departmental goal for 2008-2009. Dan Kernler has agreed to chair this effort.

6. Currently an ACT score of 23 or higher fulfills the prerequisite for initial placement in MTH 101, 102, 110 and 112.Should this score be the same for all four courses?

• There was no compelling evidence to change this benchmark.

• Dan presented comparative data on student success in MTH 112 based on whether they were placed by their ACT score or had completed MTH 098. However, this data needs to be updated and expanded.
• Dan will talk to Tony about of getting this data.

7. Currently an “ACT score of 28 or higher and one year of high school or college trig with a grade of C or better” satisfies the prereq for MTH 133.For MTH 126, 125 and 120, the minimum ACT score is also 28.

• Current scores are appropriate.
• Current catalog and math brochure language need clarification on this.
• The significance of a score of 2 on the AP placement exam was discussed as a means of placement into calculus.

8. The need for further evaluation of the PLATO Academic Software was brought up.

ACTION: Lauren, Gary and Mary Ann will meet before the end of the semester to do the evaluation.

9. The effect of the changes made in MTH 090 several years ago on student success in MTH 096 were tabled. Tony is getting data on this and Mary Ann will report back when it is available.