Improving the Targeting of Treatment

Abstract

At an annual cost of roughly $7 billion nationally, remedial coursework is one of the single largest interventions intended to improve outcomes for underprepared college students. But like a costly medical treatment with non-trivial side effects, the value of remediation overall depends upon whether those most likely to benefit can be identified in advance. Our analysis uses administrative data and a rich predictive model to examine the accuracy of remedial screening tests, either instead of or in addition to using high school transcript data to determine remedial assignment. We find that roughly one in four test-takers in math and one in three test-takers in English are severely mis-assigned under current test-based policies, with mis-assignments to remediation much more common than mis-assignments to college-level coursework. We find that using high school transcript information-either instead of or in addition to test scores-could significantly reduce the prevalence of assignment errors. Further, we find that the choice of screening device has significant implications for the racial and gender composition of both remedial and college-level courses. Finally, we find that if institutions took account of students' high school performance, they could remediate substantially fewer students without lowering success rates in college-level courses.

What Happens to Underprepared First-Time-in-College Students When Developmental Education is Optional? The Case of Developmental Math and Intermediate Algebra in the First Semester

“…Further, our results demonstrate that some magnitude of students who would have been previously required to take developmental education based solely on their PERT score were successful in passing gateway math. This finding offers support to numerous other studies that have shown the benefit of using multiple measures (e.g., Ngo & Kwon, 2015; Scott-Clayton, Crosta, & Belfield, 2014). A combination of flexible cutoff scores (or bands) with multiple measures such as high school transcript information (course taking and grades) might be the best approach to developmental education placement.…”

Equality, Efficiency, and Developmental Education Reform: The Impact of SB 1720 on the Mission of the Florida College System

“…Critics highlight the fact that Black and Hispanic students are disproportionately enrolled in DE coursework (Attewell, Lavin, Domina, & Levey, 2006; Complete College America, 2012) and fail to complete the work at higher rates than their White peers (Bahr, 2010;Bailey et al, 2010). Some also question the validity of high-stakes placement tests and the arbitrary cut scores used to make DE course enrollment decisions (Scott-Clayton, 2012;Scott-Clayton, Crosta, & Belfield, 2014). Advocates of DE disagree, saying that these programs facilitate democratic equality by allowing more diverse groups of students to pursue higher education than could otherwise (Bahr, 2010).…”

Editors' Notes

“…Research has shown the limitations of using a single, standardized instrument and its association with poor outcomes for students referred to remedial courses. For example, it is estimated that one in four test‐takers in math and one in three test‐takers in English are severely misplaced with severe under‐placements being two to six times more frequent than severe over‐placements (Scott‐Clayton, Crosta, & Belfield, ). There is an ongoing examination of the validity of placement testing, and recent studies revealed high school grade point averages were better than placement tests in predicting success in college‐level work (Belfield & Crosta, ; Hughes & Scott‐Clayton, ; Scott‐Clayton, ).…”