Santa Fe Community College dumps 'not very accurate' admissions tests

Nov. 26—Students newly enrolling in courses at Santa Fe Community College for the spring 2023 semester might be surprised — and delighted — to find they won't have to undergo a battery of tests long used to determine if they have to take remedial classes.

The college is rolling out a new assessment method in place of standardized tests for math, English and reading called Accuplacer that previously have placed the wide majority of new students in developmental classes.

The change, college President Becky Rowley said, is intended to advance equity and degree completion.

"What we found with the test is that, first of all, it's not very accurate," she said. "It really doesn't tell us what we think it has been telling us all along. And there are a lot of cultural biases with the test."

Earlier this month, the school began enrolling students in spring courses using a system with several performance metrics, including high school grade point averages, self-assessments and optional tests.

Scholarly research over decades has found problems with the use of standardized tests in higher education as a yardstick for a student's college readiness, such as cultural biases favoring white students and limiting access to college for those of color.

Yash Morimoto, Santa Fe Community College's vice president of strategy and organizational effectiveness, said the college's use of the Accuplacer exams repeated this pattern. Students of color were much less likely to perform well on Accuplacer, an assessment developed by the College Board, which also governs the SAT, high school Advanced Placement exams and other standardized tests.

The result?

Morimoto said 79 percent of students enrolling in the school were placed in remedial courses. Many of those students didn't need the remedial courses to succeed at a college level, despite the test results, said Marcos Maez, director of student engagement and recruitment. In his workshops offering high school juniors and seniors an opportunity to take Accuplacer, Maez added, he found many high-achieving high school students — those who were college ready based on other measures — were testing below college level.

Placing students in remedial courses drastically reduces their likelihood of attaining a college degree, Morimoto said, because developmental courses extend the time it takes for students to complete their degree programs and raise the cost of higher education.

"The longer you take courses in college, the greater chance that something in your life is going to derail you — not because you're not capable but because nonacademic life challenges happen," Morimoto said.

Morimoto called the continuation of Accuplacer use a "huge, disproportionate racial injustice;" Rowley called it a "disservice" to students.

Students with a high school GPA of 2.6 or above are now considered ready for college courses, Rowley said.

Meanwhile, Accuplacer is still an option for students who want to use it as a placement metric, and the college will consider scores on other nationally recognized exams, such as the SAT and ACT.

The college is also streamlining its remedial curriculum to limit the burden developmental courses place on students and move them into college-level courses faster.

Ultimately, Rowley said, the new placement policy should improve student retention and promote degree completion while making course placement a collaborative conversation between students and advisers.

While the rollout of the new policy might involve some hiccups, Morimoto said he isn't worried about students meeting any challenges.

"Our students are capable students," Morimoto said. "People are worried that if we move in this direction, we're throwing unprepared students in dangerous water where they're not going to be successful. But our experience and our data and our research all point that that is not the case."