A new report from Jobs for the Future, an organization committed to doubling the number of low-income youth and adults who attain postsecondary credentials, claims that college placement tests should be considered high stakes, and examines the consequences of assigning students to non-credit, remedial coursework.

Where to Begin? The Evolving Role of Placement Exams for Students Starting College highlights ways that states and systems are approaching the use of placement exams, and suggests five key areas of reform and reconsideration as states look to improve policies and practices around placement exams:

• Placement exams are high-stakes tests.
• The effectiveness of traditional developmental education is unclear.
• Accelerating some students through or out of developmental courses seems promising.
• Placement exams are weak predictors of success in gateway courses.
• Math and English assessments provide at best a narrow picture of a students’ readiness for college.

The authors also suggest three areas for possible innovation: downplaying the tests; changing the tests; and supporting students around tests. Within each area, strategies undertaken by states are described. For example, under “Supporting Students around Tests,” the authors state that some school systems have created policies that require 11th grade students to take college placement exams so that high schools can examine the results and provide additional preparation before students graduate high school.

The report closes with key questions for further research, such as “Do efforts to better prepare students and increase awareness of high-stakes nature of placement tests lead to higher scores and better predictive value?”

View the report here.

Kara Herbertson, Education Policy Analyst

Education stakeholders have emphasized “deeper learning” and “21^st century skills” as requisite for students to achieve the higher level learning that the labor market demands. But what exactly do these terms mean?

The National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies of Science released a new report that brings some clarity to this question. NRC breaks down into three areas the skills that may fall under definitions such as “deeper learning” or similar terms: cognitive skills, interpersonal skills, and intrapersonal skills.

Cognitive skills include critical thinking, information literacy, reasoning and argumentation, and innovation.

Intrapersonal skills involve competencies such as flexibility, initiative, and metacognition.

Interpersonal skills include areas like communication, collaboration, responsibility, and conflict resolution.

While cognitive skills are certainly valuable, the study suggests that a combination of skills in each of the above areas helps students to transfer their specific knowledge to broader situations and influences more successful outcomes.

The authors recommend that policy makers support strategies and efforts, such as common standards, that integrate deeper learning skills into education. They also suggest that foundations and agencies support more research on the relationship between student attainment of deeper learning skills and their later outcomes. Lastly, the authors recommend using research-backed teaching methods, many often used in Career Technical Education (CTE), such as teaching with examples and cases, to provide real-life learning experiences for students.

Learn more about this extensive study here.

Kara Herbertson, Education Policy Analyst